Stella octangula as a faceting of the cube

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

, faceting (also spelled facetting) is the process of removing parts of a

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

polyhedron In geometry, a polyhedron (plural polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices. A convex polyhedron is the convex hull of finitely many points, not all on th ...

polytope In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with flat sides (''faces''). Polytopes are the generalization of three-dimensional polyhedra to any number of dimensions. Polytopes may exist in any general number of dimensions as an -d ...

, without creating any new vertices. New edges of a faceted polyhedron may be created along

face diagonal In geometry, a face diagonal of a polyhedron is a diagonal on one of the faces, in contrast to a ''space diagonal'' passing through the interior of the polyhedron. A cuboid has twelve face diagonals (two on each of the six faces), and it has fou ...

s or internal

space diagonal In geometry, a space diagonal (also interior diagonal or body diagonal) of a polyhedron is a line connecting two vertices that are not on the same face. Space diagonals contrast with '' face diagonals'', which connect vertices on the same face (bu ...

s. A ''faceted polyhedron'' will have two faces on each edge and creates new polyhedra or compounds of polyhedra. Faceting is the reciprocal or dual process to ''

stellation In geometry, stellation is the process of extending a polygon in two dimensions, polyhedron in three dimensions, or, in general, a polytope in ''n'' dimensions to form a new figure. Starting with an original figure, the process extends specific el ...

''. For every stellation of some

convex polytope A convex polytope is a special case of a polytope, having the additional property that it is also a convex set contained in the n-dimensional Euclidean space \mathbb^n. Most texts. use the term "polytope" for a bounded convex polytope, and the wo ...

, there exists a dual faceting of the

dual polytope In geometry, every polyhedron is associated with a second dual structure, where the Vertex (geometry), vertices of one correspond to the Face (geometry), faces of the other, and the edges between pairs of vertices of one correspond to the edges b ...

Faceted polygons

For example, a regular

pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

has one symmetry faceting, the

pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aroun ...

, and the regular

hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Ancient Greek, Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple polygon, simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexa ...

has two symmetric facetings, one as a polygon, and one as a compound of two triangles.

Faceted polyhedra

The

regular icosahedron In geometry, a regular icosahedron ( or ) is a convex polyhedron with 20 faces, 30 edges and 12 vertices. It is one of the five Platonic solids, and the one with the most faces. It has five equilateral triangular faces meeting at each vertex. It ...

can be faceted into three regular Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra: small stellated dodecahedron, great dodecahedron, and great icosahedron. They all have 30 edges. The regular

dodecahedron In geometry, a dodecahedron (Greek , from ''dōdeka'' "twelve" + ''hédra'' "base", "seat" or "face") or duodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces. The most familiar dodecahedron is the regular dodecahedron with regular pentagon ...

can be faceted into one regular

Kepler–Poinsot polyhedron In geometry, a Kepler–Poinsot polyhedron is any of four regular star polyhedra. They may be obtained by stellating the regular convex dodecahedron and icosahedron, and differ from these in having regular pentagrammic faces or vertex figures. ...

, three

uniform star polyhedra In geometry, a uniform star polyhedron is a self-intersecting uniform polyhedron. They are also sometimes called nonconvex polyhedra to imply self-intersecting. Each polyhedron can contain either star polygon faces, star polygon vertex figures, ...

, and three

regular polyhedral compound In geometry, a polyhedral compound is a figure that is composed of several polyhedra sharing a common centre. They are the three-dimensional analogs of polygonal compounds such as the hexagram. The outer vertices of a compound can be connecte ...

. The uniform stars and

compound of five cubes The compound of five cubes is one of the five regular polyhedral compounds. It was first described by Edmund Hess in 1876. It is one of five regular compounds, and dual to the compound of five octahedra. It can be seen as a faceting of a regula ...

are constructed by

s. The

excavated dodecahedron In geometry, the excavated dodecahedron is a star polyhedron that looks like a dodecahedron with concave pentagonal pyramids in place of its faces. Its exterior surface represents the Ef1g1 stellation of the icosahedron. It appears in Magnus We ...

is a facetting with star hexagon faces.

History

Faceting has not been studied as extensively as

. * In 1568

Wenzel Jamnitzer Wenzel Jamnitzer (sometimes Jamitzer, or Wenzel ''Gemniczer'') (1507/1508 – 19 December 1585) was a Northern Mannerist goldsmith, artist, and printmaker in etching, who worked in Nuremberg. He was the best known German goldsmith of his e ...

published his book ''

Perspectiva Corporum Regularium (from Latin: ''Perspective of the Regular Solids'') is a book of perspective drawings of polyhedra by German Renaissance goldsmith Wenzel Jamnitzer, with engravings by Jost Amman, published in 1568. Despite its Latin title, is written mainly ...

'', showing many stellations and facetings of polyhedra.''Mathematical Treasure: Wenzel Jamnitzer's Platonic Solids''
by Frank J. Swetz (2013): "In this study of the five Platonic solids, Jamnitzer truncated, stellated, and faceted the regular solids .. * In 1619,

Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws o ...

described a regular compound of two

tetrahedra In geometry, a tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the o ...

which fits inside a cube, and which he called the

Stella octangula The stellated octahedron is the only stellation of the octahedron. It is also called the stella octangula (Latin for "eight-pointed star"), a name given to it by Johannes Kepler in 1609, though it was known to earlier geometers. It was depict ...

. * In 1858,

Bertrand Bertrand may refer to: Places * Bertrand, Missouri, US * Bertrand, Nebraska, US * Bertrand, New Brunswick, Canada * Bertrand Township, Michigan, US * Bertrand, Michigan * Bertrand, Virginia, US * Bertrand Creek, state of Washington * Saint-Bertr ...

derived the regular

star polyhedra In geometry, a star polyhedron is a polyhedron which has some repetitive quality of nonconvexity giving it a star-like visual quality. There are two general kinds of star polyhedron: *Polyhedra which self-intersect in a repetitive way. *Concave p ...

( Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra) by faceting the regular

convex Convex or convexity may refer to: Science and technology * Convex lens, in optics Mathematics * Convex set, containing the whole line segment that joins points ** Convex polygon, a polygon which encloses a convex set of points ** Convex polytope ...

icosahedron In geometry, an icosahedron ( or ) is a polyhedron with 20 faces. The name comes and . The plural can be either "icosahedra" () or "icosahedrons". There are infinitely many non- similar shapes of icosahedra, some of them being more symmetrica ...

and

. * In 1974, Bridge enumerated the more straightforward facetings of the regular polyhedra, including those of the

. * In 2006, Inchbald described the basic theory of faceting diagrams for polyhedra. For a given vertex, the diagram shows all the possible edges and facets (new faces) which may be used to form facetings of the original hull. It is dual to the

dual polyhedron In geometry, every polyhedron is associated with a second dual structure, where the vertices of one correspond to the faces of the other, and the edges between pairs of vertices of one correspond to the edges between pairs of faces of the other. ...

's stellation diagram, which shows all the possible edges and vertices for some face plane of the original core.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Bertrand, J. Note sur la théorie des polyèdres réguliers, ''Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Sciences'', 46 (1858), pp. 79–82. *Bridge, N.J. Facetting the dodecahedron, ''Acta crystallographica'' A30 (1974), pp. 548–552. *Inchbald, G. Facetting diagrams, ''The mathematical gazette'', 90 (2006), pp. 253–261. * Alan Holden, ''Shapes, Space, and Symmetry''. New York: Dover, 1991. p.94

External links

* *{{GlossaryForHyperspace , anchor= Faceting , title= Faceting Polyhedra Polygons Polytopes