Isohedral figure

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Short description: ≥2-dimensional tessellation or ≥3-dimensional polytope with identical faces
A set of isohedral dice

In geometry, a tessellation of dimension 2 (a plane tiling) or higher, or a polytope of dimension 3 (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 but must be transitive, i.e. must lie within the same symmetry orbit. In other words, for any two faces A and B, there must be a symmetry of the entire figure by translations, rotations, and/or reflections that maps A onto B. For this reason, convex isohedral polyhedra are the shapes that will make fair dice.[1]

Isohedral polyhedra are called isohedra. They can be described by their face configuration. An isohedron has an even number of faces.

The dual of an isohedral polyhedron is vertex-transitive, i.e. isogonal. The Catalan solids, the bipyramids, and the trapezohedra are all isohedral. They are the duals of the (isogonal) Archimedean solids, prisms, and antiprisms, respectively. The Platonic solids, which are either self-dual or dual with another Platonic solid, are vertex-, edge-, and face-transitive (i.e. isogonal, isotoxal, and isohedral).

A form that is isohedral, has regular vertices, and is also edge-transitive (i.e. isotoxal) is said to be a quasiregular dual. Some theorists regard these figures as truly quasiregular because they share the same symmetries, but this is not generally accepted.

A polyhedron which is isohedral and isogonal is said to be noble.

Not all isozonohedra[2] are isohedral.[3] For example, a rhombic icosahedron is an isozonohedron but not an isohedron.[4]

Examples

Convex Concave
Hexagonale bipiramide.png
Hexagonal bipyramids, V4.4.6, are nonregular isohedral polyhedra.
Tiling Dual Semiregular V3-3-4-3-4 Cairo Pentagonal.svg
The Cairo pentagonal tiling, V3.3.4.3.4, is isohedral.
Rhombic dodecahedra.png
The rhombic dodecahedral honeycomb is isohedral (and isochoric, and space-filling).
Capital I4 tiling-4color.svg
A square tiling distorted into a spiraling H tiling (topologically equivalent) is still isohedral.

Classes of isohedra by symmetry

Faces Face
config.
Class Name Symmetry Order Convex Coplanar Nonconvex
4 V33 Platonic tetrahedron
tetragonal disphenoid
rhombic disphenoid
Td, [3,3], (*332)
D2d, [2+,2], (2*)
D2, [2,2]+, (222)
24
4
4
4
Tetrahedron60pxRhombic disphenoid.png
6 V34 Platonic cube
trigonal trapezohedron
asymmetric trigonal trapezohedron
Oh, [4,3], (*432)
D3d, [2+,6]
(2*3)
D3
[2,3]+, (223)
48
12
12
6
Cube30pxTrigonal trapezohedron gyro-side.png
8 V43 Platonic octahedron
square bipyramid
rhombic bipyramid
square scalenohedron
Oh, [4,3], (*432)
D4h,[2,4],(*224)
D2h,[2,2],(*222)
D2d,[2+,4],(2*2)
48
16
8
8
Octahedron60px60px60px60px60px 4-scalenohedron-15.png
12 V35 Platonic regular dodecahedron
pyritohedron
tetartoid
Ih, [5,3], (*532)
Th, [3+,4], (3*2)
T, [3,3]+, (*332)
120
24
12
Dodecahedron60px60px 60px60px 60pxStar pyritohedron-1.49.png
20 V53 Platonic regular icosahedron Ih, [5,3], (*532) 120 Icosahedron
12 V3.62 Catalan triakis tetrahedron Td, [3,3], (*332) 24 Triakis tetrahedron 60px60px 5-cell net.png
12 V(3.4)2 Catalan rhombic dodecahedron
deltoidal dodecahedron
Oh, [4,3], (*432)
Td, [3,3], (*332)
48
24
Rhombic dodecahedron60px60px 60px 60pxSkew rhombic dodecahedron-450.png
24 V3.82 Catalan triakis octahedron Oh, [4,3], (*432) 48 Triakis octahedron 60pxExcavated octahedron.png
24 V4.62 Catalan tetrakis hexahedron Oh, [4,3], (*432) 48 Tetrakis hexahedron60px 60px60px 60pxExcavated cube.png
24 V3.43 Catalan deltoidal icositetrahedron Oh, [4,3], (*432) 48 Deltoidal icositetrahedron60px 60px60px60px Deltoidal icositetrahedron concave-gyro.png
48 V4.6.8 Catalan disdyakis dodecahedron Oh, [4,3], (*432) 48 Disdyakis dodecahedron 60px60px60px 60pxDU20 great disdyakisdodecahedron.png
24 V34.4 Catalan pentagonal icositetrahedron O, [4,3]+, (432) 24 Pentagonal icositetrahedron
30 V(3.5)2 Catalan rhombic triacontahedron Ih, [5,3], (*532) 120 Rhombic triacontahedron
60 V3.102 Catalan triakis icosahedron Ih, [5,3], (*532) 120 Triakis icosahedron 60px60px60pxPyramid excavated icosahedron.png
60 V5.62 Catalan pentakis dodecahedron Ih, [5,3], (*532) 120 Pentakis dodecahedron 60px60px60px60pxThird stellation of icosahedron.svg
60 V3.4.5.4 Catalan deltoidal hexecontahedron Ih, [5,3], (*532) 120 Deltoidal hexecontahedron 120px Rhombic hexecontahedron.png
120 V4.6.10 Catalan disdyakis triacontahedron Ih, [5,3], (*532) 120 Disdyakis triacontahedron 60px60px60px 60px60pxExcavated rhombic triacontahedron.png
60 V34.5 Catalan pentagonal hexecontahedron I, [5,3]+, (532) 60 Pentagonal hexecontahedron
2n V33.n Polar trapezohedron
asymmetric trapezohedron
Dnd, [2+,2n], (2*n)
Dn, [2,n]+, (22n)
4n
2n
TrigonalTrapezohedron.svg60px60px60px
60pxTwisted hexagonal trapezohedron.png
2n
4n
V42.n
V42.2n
V42.2n
Polar regular n-bipyramid
isotoxal 2n-bipyramid
2n-scalenohedron
Dnh, [2,n], (*22n)
Dnh, [2,n], (*22n)
Dnd, [2+,2n], (2*n)
4n Triangular bipyramid.png60px60px60px 60px60px60px60px60px60px8-3-dipyramid zigzag inout.png

k-isohedral figure

A polyhedron (or polytope in general) is k-isohedral if it contains k faces within its symmetry fundamental domains.[5] Similarly, a k-isohedral tiling has k separate symmetry orbits (it may contain m different face shapes, for m = k, or only for some m < k).[6] ("1-isohedral" is the same as "isohedral".)

A monohedral polyhedron or monohedral tiling (m = 1) has congruent faces, either directly or reflectively, which occur in one or more symmetry positions. An m-hedral polyhedron or tiling has m different face shapes ("dihedral", "trihedral"... are the same as "2-hedral", "3-hedral"... respectively).[7]

Here are some examples of k-isohedral polyhedra and tilings, with their faces colored by their k symmetry positions:

3-isohedral 4-isohedral isohedral 2-isohedral
2-hedral regular-faced polyhedra Monohedral polyhedra
Small rhombicuboctahedron.png Johnson solid 37.png Deltoidal icositetrahedron gyro.png Pseudo-strombic icositetrahedron (2-isohedral).png
The rhombicuboctahedron has 1 triangle type and 2 square types. The pseudo-rhombicuboctahedron has 1 triangle type and 3 square types. The deltoidal icositetrahedron has 1 face type. The pseudo-deltoidal icositetrahedron has 2 face types, with same shape.
2-isohedral 4-isohedral Isohedral 3-isohedral
2-hedral regular-faced tilings Monohedral tilings
Distorted truncated square tiling.png 3-uniform n57.png Herringbone bond.svg
P5-type10.png
The Pythagorean tiling has 2 square types (sizes). This 3-uniform tiling has 3 triangle types, with same shape, and 1 square type. The herringbone pattern has 1 rectangle type. This pentagonal tiling has 3 irregular pentagon types, with same shape.

Related terms

A cell-transitive or isochoric figure is an n-polytope (n ≥ 4) or n-honeycomb (n ≥ 3) that has its cells congruent and transitive with each others. In 3 dimensions, the catoptric honeycombs, duals to the uniform honeycombs, are isochoric. In 4 dimensions, isochoric polytopes have been enumerated up to 20 cells.[8]

A facet-transitive or isotopic figure is an n-dimensional polytope or honeycomb with its facets ((n−1)-faces) congruent and transitive. The dual of an isotope is an isogonal polytope. By definition, this isotopic property is common to the duals of the uniform polytopes.

  • An isotopic 2-dimensional figure is isotoxal, i.e. edge-transitive.
  • An isotopic 3-dimensional figure is isohedral, i.e. face-transitive.
  • An isotopic 4-dimensional figure is isochoric, i.e. cell-transitive.

See also

  • Edge-transitive
  • Anisohedral tiling

References

  1. McLean, K. Robin (1990), "Dungeons, dragons, and dice", The Mathematical Gazette 74 (469): 243–256, doi:10.2307/3619822 .
  2. Weisstein, Eric W.. "Isozonohedron" (in en). http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Isozonohedron.html. 
  3. Weisstein, Eric W.. "Isohedron" (in en). http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Isohedron.html. 
  4. Weisstein, Eric W.. "Rhombic Icosahedron" (in en). http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RhombicIcosahedron.html. 
  5. Socolar, Joshua E. S. (2007). "Hexagonal Parquet Tilings: k-Isohedral Monotiles with Arbitrarily Large k" (corrected PDF). The Mathematical Intelligencer 29: 33–38. doi:10.1007/bf02986203. http://www.phy.duke.edu/~socolar/hexparquet.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-09. 
  6. Craig S. Kaplan, "Introductory Tiling Theory for Computer Graphics" , 2009, Chapter 5: "Isohedral Tilings", p. 35.
  7. Tilings and Patterns, p. 20, 23.
  8. "Four Dimensional Dice up to Twenty Sides". http://www.polytope.net/hedrondude/dice4.htm. 

External links