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 ...

, a trigonal trapezohedron is a

rhombohedron In geometry, a rhombohedron (also called a rhombic hexahedron or, inaccurately, a rhomboid Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are non-right ang ...

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 ...

with six

rhombus In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (plural rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The ...

-shaped

faces The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affe ...

) in which, additionally, all six faces are

congruent Congruence may refer to: Mathematics * Congruence (geometry), being the same size and shape * Congruence or congruence relation, in abstract algebra, an equivalence relation on an algebraic structure that is compatible with the structure * In mod ...

. Alternative names for the same shape are the ''trigonal deltohedron'' or ''

isohedral In geometry, a tessellation of dimension (a plane tiling) or higher, or a polytope of dimension (a polyhedron) or higher, is isohedral or face-transitive if all its faces are the same. More specifically, all faces must be not merely congruent ...

rhombohedron''. Some sources just call them ''rhombohedra''.

Geometry

Six identical rhombic faces can construct two configurations of trigonal trapezohedra. The ''acute'' or ''prolate'' form has three acute angle corners of the rhombic faces meeting at the two polar axis vertices. The ''obtuse'' or ''oblate'' or ''flat'' form has three obtuse angle corners of the rhombic faces meeting at the two polar axis vertices. More strongly than having all faces congruent, the trigonal trapezohedra are

isohedral figure In geometry, a tessellation of dimension (a plane tiling) or higher, or a polytope of dimension (a polyhedron) or higher, is isohedral or face-transitive if all its faces are the same. More specifically, all faces must be not merely congruent ...

s, meaning that they have symmetries that take any face to any other face.

Special cases

cube In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. Viewed from a corner it is a hexagon and its net is usually depicted as a cross. The cube is the only r ...

can be interpreted as a special case of a trigonal trapezohedron, with square rather than rhombic faces. The two golden rhombohedra are the acute and obtuse form of the trigonal trapezohedron with

golden rhombus In geometry, a golden rhombus is a rhombus whose diagonals are in the golden ratio: : = \varphi = \approx 1.618~034 Equivalently, it is the Varignon parallelogram formed from the edge midpoints of a golden rectangle. Rhombi with this shape form ...

faces. Copies of these can be assembled to form other convex polyhedra with golden rhombus faces, including the

Bilinski dodecahedron In geometry, the Bilinski dodecahedron is a Convex set, convex polyhedron with twelve Congruence (geometry), congruent golden rhombus faces. It has the same topology but a different geometry than the face-transitive rhombic dodecahedron. It is a ...

and

rhombic triacontahedron In geometry, the rhombic triacontahedron, sometimes simply called the triacontahedron as it is the most common thirty-faced polyhedron, is a convex polyhedron with 30 rhombic faces. It has 60 edges and 32 vertices of two types. It is a Cata ...

. Four oblate rhombohedra whose ratio of face diagonal lengths are the

square root of two The square root of 2 (approximately 1.4142) is a positive real number that, when multiplied by itself, equals the number 2. It may be written in mathematics as \sqrt or 2^, and is an algebraic number. Technically, it should be called the princip ...

can be assembled to form a

rhombic dodecahedron In geometry, the rhombic dodecahedron is a convex polyhedron with 12 congruent rhombic faces. It has 24 edges, and 14 vertices of 2 types. It is a Catalan solid, and the dual polyhedron of the cuboctahedron. Properties The rhombic dodecahedro ...

. The same rhombohedra also tile space in the

trigonal trapezohedral honeycomb In geometry, the trigonal trapezohedral honeycomb is a uniform space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space. Cells are identical trigonal trapezohedra or rhombohedra. Conway, Burgiel, and Goodman-Strauss call it an oblate cubil ...

Related polyhedra

The trigonal trapezohedra are special cases of

trapezohedra In geometry, an trapezohedron, -trapezohedron, -antidipyramid, -antibipyramid, or -deltohedron is the dual polyhedron of an antiprism. The faces of an are congruent and symmetrically staggered; they are called ''twisted kites''. With a hi ...

, polyhedra with an even number of congruent

kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. ...

-shaped faces. When this number of faces is six, the kites

degenerate Degeneracy, degenerate, or degeneration may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Degenerate (album), ''Degenerate'' (album), a 2010 album by the British band Trigger the Bloodshed * Degenerate art, a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party i ...

to rhombi, and the result is a trigonal trapezohedron. As with the rhombohedra more generally, the trigonal trapezohedra are also special cases of

parallelepiped In geometry, a parallelepiped is a three-dimensional figure formed by six parallelograms (the term ''rhomboid'' is also sometimes used with this meaning). By analogy, it relates to a parallelogram just as a cube relates to a square. In Euclidea ...

s, and are the only parallelepipeds with six congruent faces. Parallelepipeds are

zonohedra In geometry, a zonohedron is a convex polyhedron that is centrally symmetric, every face of which is a polygon that is centrally symmetric (a zonogon). Any zonohedron may equivalently be described as the Minkowski sum of a set of line segments in ...

, and

Evgraf Fedorov Evgraf Stepanovich Fedorov (russian: Евгра́ф Степа́нович Фёдоров, – 21 May 1919) was a Russian mathematician, crystallographer and mineralogist. Fedorov was born in the Russian city of Orenburg. His father was a topo ...

proved that the trigonal trapezohedra are the only infinite family of zonohedra whose faces are all congruent rhombi.

Dürer's solid In geometry, the truncated triangular trapezohedron is the first in an infinite series of truncated trapezohedra. It has 6 pentagon and 2 triangle faces. Geometry This polyhedron can be constructed by Truncation (geometry), truncating two oppos ...

is generally presumed to be a truncated triangular trapezohedron, a trigonal trapezohedron with two opposite vertices truncated, although its precise shape is still a matter for debate.

References

External links

* Space-filling polyhedra Zonohedra Polyhedra {{Polyhedron-stub

Geometry

Special cases

Related polyhedra

See also

References

External links