All Questions
32 questions
27
votes
3
answers
13k
views
Which unfoldings of the hypercube tile 3-space: How to check for isometric space-fillers?
Recently Mark McClure constructed and displayed
the 261 unfoldings of the hypercube (tesseract)
in response to the question,
"3D models of the unfoldings of the hypercube?":
The first 9 unfoldings ...
- 151k
26
votes
2
answers
4k
views
3D models of the unfoldings of the hypercube?
There are (apparently) 261 distinct unfoldings of the 4D hypercube, a.k.a., the
tesseract, into 3D.1
These unfoldings (or "nets") are analogous to the 11 unfoldings of
the 3D cube into the plane.2
...
- 151k
25
votes
3
answers
994
views
Does every convex polyhedron have a combinatorially isomorphic counterpart whose faces all have rational areas?
Does every convex polyhedron have a combinatorially isomorphic counterpart whose faces all have rational areas?
Does every convex polyhedron have a combinatorially isomorphic counterpart whose edges ...
- 513
24
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Which unfoldings of the $d$-dimensional hypercube tile $(d{-}1)$-space?
A six year old question,
Which unfoldings of the hypercube tile $3$-space?, has just been answered by
Moritz Firsching:
All $261$ unfoldings tile space!
So now we know:
For $d=2$, the unfolding of ...
- 151k
20
votes
4
answers
950
views
The limit of edge-midpoint convex polyhedra
Starting with a convex polyhedron $P_1 \subset \mathbb{R}^3$,
replace that with $P_2$, the convex hull of the midpoints of the edges of $P_1$.
Continuing this process, we obtain a ...
- 151k
20
votes
1
answer
591
views
Update to Shephard's "Twenty Problems on Convex Polyhedra"
Forty-three years ago, Geoffrey Shephard published an influential list of open problems
on convex polyhedra.
Progress has been made on several of his problems, and perhaps some have been completely ...
- 151k
18
votes
2
answers
986
views
"Derived" polyhedra and polytopes
The notion of derived polygon is natural and leads to remarkable convergence.
Start with a polygon, and replace it by locating a point on every edge
a fraction $\alpha$ between the two endpoints. For ...
- 151k
18
votes
1
answer
678
views
Higher dimensional generalization of: Any quadrilateral tiles the plane?
Any (non-self-intersecting) quadrilateral tiles the plane.
(MathWorld image.)
Q. What is the strongest known generalization of this statement to higher dimensions?
I.e., $\mathbb{R}^d$ ...
- 151k
14
votes
0
answers
479
views
Does every convex polyhedron have a combinatorially isomorphic counterpart whose angles between edges are rational multiples of $\pi$?
After reading these very interesting questions, I came up with another one:
Does every convex polyhedron have a combinatorially isomorphic counterpart whose angles between all pairs of edges meeting ...
- 532
13
votes
0
answers
406
views
Surface area of convex hull [duplicate]
Let Q be the convex hull of a non-convex polyhedron P. Is it true that the surface area of Q is not greater than the surface area of P?
- 131
11
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Which (semi)regular polyhedra are combinations of two others?
The convex combination of convex polytopes is a convex polytope.
An example in $\mathbb{R}^2$ is that a regular octagon
can be obtained as $\frac{1}{2} S + \frac{1}{2} S'$,
where $S$ is a square and $...
- 151k
11
votes
1
answer
652
views
How to correctly state Cauchy's rigidity theorem?
Cauchy's rigidity theorem is often stated briefly as
Any two (convex, 3-dimensional) polyhedra with pairwise congruent faces are themselves congruent.
As a more formal generalization to general ...
- 13.6k
10
votes
2
answers
523
views
When does every point in a polytope lie along a chord between its edges?
Consider the 3-simplex, or tetrahedron, in 3-space. Regardless of the positions of the vertices, every point in the simplex lies on a chord between two non-adjacent edges of the simplex. Or, ...
- 329
10
votes
2
answers
326
views
Do maximal polyhedra have algebraic volume?
Is it possible to prove that for every $n > 3$ the maximal possible volume of a convex polyhedron having $n$ vertices inscribed in a sphere of unit radius is an algebraic number?
Update: What can ...
- 6,819
10
votes
0
answers
333
views
Bi-spherical polyhedra
Bicentric polygons have been studied: a polygon all of whose vertices lie on its
circumcirle, and whose incircle is tangent to every edge:
I have not been able to find a comparable literature ...
- 151k
9
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Maximum volume cross-section of a hypercube
This is surely well known, but:
Q1. What is the $(d{-}1)$-dimensional polytope
that realizes the maximum volume cross-section of a unit hypercube
by a $(d{-}1)$-dimensional hyperplane?
...
- 151k
7
votes
3
answers
866
views
Not quite regular polyhedra
Take a naive interpretation of regular polyhedra:
All vertices (including epsilon ball) congruent
All edges congruent
All faces congruent
We can now find interesting families by removing one ...
- 1,314
7
votes
2
answers
392
views
Convex deltahedra in higher dimensions
There are eight convex polyhedra whose faces are equilateral triangles, so-called
deltahedra:
(Image from here)
Q. Have the equivalent higher-dimensional ...
- 151k
7
votes
0
answers
227
views
Tiling space with supertile of hypercube unfoldings
Two students in my class
asked and answered what might be a novel question.
It is well known that the cube has exactly $11$ edge-unfoldings
(or "nets"), as shown below:
(Image from ...
- 151k
6
votes
1
answer
544
views
Isometric embedding a convex cap to render its boundary planar
I would like to know if there is a polyhedral analog to this beautiful
theorem of Hong:
Theorem 11.0.1.
Any smooth positive disk $(\bar{D},g)$ with a positive geodesic
curvature along $\partial ...
- 151k
5
votes
3
answers
683
views
Alexandrov's generalization of Cauchy's rigidity theorem
Wikipedia states that A. D. Alexandrov generalized Cauchy's rigidity theorem for polyhedra to higher dimensions.
The relevant statement in the article is not linked to any source. The sources at the ...
- 13.6k
5
votes
2
answers
1k
views
regular polyhedra (and polytopes) in hyperbolic geometry, and generalisations
While there exist regular tesselations of the hyperbolic plane with arbitrary regular polygons, there are no new regular polyhedra in hyperbolic (3D) space. This being quite trivial, it is probably ...
- 3,630
4
votes
1
answer
3k
views
intersection of convex and non-convex polyhedra
I am trying to find the best appropriate way to intersect polyhedra which may be non-convex.
The number of vertices that build the polyhedron is hence always small (up to 20 or so).
The ...
- 143
4
votes
1
answer
320
views
Seeking criteria for "threadable" pairs of centrosymmetric polyhedra
Let $A$ and $B$ be origin-centered centrosymmetric polyhedra in $\mathbb{R}^3$:
"for every point $(x, y, z)$ [...] there is an indistinguishable point $(-x, -y, -z)$."
Say that $A$ and $B$ are ...
- 151k
4
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Regular cross-sections of a dodecahedron; analogous sections of 4-polytopes
One can intersect a dodecahedron with a plane and
obtain an equilateral triangle, a square, a regular pentagon,
a regular hexagon, and a regular decagon:
&...
- 151k
3
votes
1
answer
233
views
Equiprojective polyhedra
Seeing Garabed Gulbenkian's question (which was inspired by Joel Hamkins' question), reminds me of an analogous problem which I believe remains open,
and which some might find intriguing.
Define an ...
- 151k
3
votes
1
answer
84
views
Tilings of lattice polytopes by transformations of lattice polytopes
A quasi-lattice polytope is a polytope obtained by reflections, translations, and rotations of lattice polytopes. In a tiling of a lattice polytope by quasi-lattice polytopes, are all quasi-lattice ...
- 745
3
votes
1
answer
239
views
The realization space of non-convex polyhedra - What is known?
The space $\mathfrak R_{\mathrm c}(P)$ of convex realizations of a (3-dimensional, spherical) polyhedron $P$ is known to be well-behaved: it is a contractible manifold of dimension $\#\text{edges}+6$ (...
- 13.6k
3
votes
0
answers
53
views
Endpoints of intrinsic diameter of a convex polyhedron
Let $P$ be a convex polyhedron in $\mathbb{R}^3$, and $d(P)$ its intrinsic diameter,
i.e., the longest shortest surface path between two points. Say that $P$ is of
class
$D_0$ if neither endpoint of $...
- 151k
3
votes
0
answers
133
views
Convex polyhedra jammed in $k$ disjoint holes
For a given convex polyhedron $P \subset \mathbb{R}^3$,
I was imagining finding the optimal "fixing" of $P$ in holes (or jamming them in "mud"),
which led to the following question.
First, scale $P$ ...
- 151k
2
votes
0
answers
87
views
Iterated polyhedron face twisting
Let $Q$ be a polygon in the plane. Modify $Q$ by rotating each edge about its
midpoint by $180^\circ$. The result is $Q$ again: No change.
This suggests exploring a similar operation in $\mathbb{R}^3$...
- 151k
1
vote
0
answers
41
views
About the number of faces of the conification of a polytope
Let $P\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ be a polytope of dimension $(n-1)$ such that the origin $\vec{0}\not\in\text{Aff}(P)$, where $\text{Aff}(P)$ denotes the affine hull of $P$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Now, we ...
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