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10 votes
1 answer
623 views

Polyhedron not circumscribed about a sphere

Let $P$ be a polyhedron whose faces are colored black and white so that there are more black faces and no two black faces are adjacent. Show that $P$ is not circumscribed about a sphere. My teacher ...
shadow10's user avatar
  • 1,090
5 votes
2 answers
378 views

Light inside a polyhedron

I have two questions the same as Mostafa's Question: Visibility of vertices in polyhedra Suppose $P$ is a closed polyhedron in space (i.e. a union of polygons which is homeomorphic to $S^2$) and $X$ ...
Morteza's user avatar
  • 628
28 votes
5 answers
2k views

Visibility of vertices in polyhedra

Suppose $P$ is a closed polyhedron in space (i.e. a union of polygons which is homeomorphic to $S^2$) and $X$ is an interior point of $P$. Is it true that $X$ can see at least one vertex of $P$? More ...
Mostafa - Free Palestine's user avatar
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?
Helen Cox's user avatar
  • 131
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:             &...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 $P$ ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
143 views

Polyhedra with minimal edge length

Given a fixed volume and fixed surface area I would like to construct polyhedra that minimize the total length of the edges. This seems like a straight-forward problem to solve by brute force for ...
Rodrigo's user avatar
  • 41
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 ...
Piotr Shatalin's user avatar
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
114 views

Constructing a polyhedron of maximal possible volume from given bounds on areas of its faces

Consider $n$ variables $a_1,...,a_n$ ranging over $\mathbb{R}^+$. Suppose we are given $n$ pairs of positive rational numbers $(p_1,q_1),...,(p_n,q_n)$ where each pair imposes bounds on the ...
Frida Mauer's user avatar
34 votes
4 answers
2k views

About the ratio of the areas of a convex pentagon and the inner pentagon made by the five diagonals

Question : Letting $S{^\prime}$ be the area of the inner pentagon made by the five diagonals of a convex pentagon whose area is $S$, then find the max of $\frac{S^\prime}{S}$.     ...
mathlove's user avatar
  • 4,757
4 votes
3 answers
3k views

Intersection of Polyhedra

I'm writing a collision detection algorithm, and so far I've been using Joseph O'Rourke's book "Computational Geometry in C" as reference. It outlines an algorithm to determine whether a point is ...
joshkarges's user avatar
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 ...
Vladimir Reshetnikov's user avatar
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
559 views

Standard (special) spines and hyperbolic structure on 3-manifolds

My question relates to constructing angled triangulations or hyperbolic triangulations for $3$--manifolds. Briefly, an angle triangulation can be considered as an assignment of a real number (called ...
Don Shanil's user avatar
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 ...
Liu Jin Tsai's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
2k views

Solid angles of a tetrahedron

This is a problem I have had for a while. For a triangle, the side opposite the largest angle has the largest length (and similarly for smallest angle). For a tetrahedron, the question is whether the ...
David Glickenstein's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
591 views

Polyhedra that combinatorially shadow a sequence

Let $P$ be a polyhedron in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Say that $P$ combinatorially shadows a sequence of natural numbers $S$ if there is a continuous rotation of $P$ such that its orthogonal-projection shadows ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
811 views

Surface of a Ideal Tetrahedron in Hyperbolic Space H3

The hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^3$, has a boundary $\mathbb{CP}^1$. A ideal tetrahedron in $\mathbb{H}^3$, is a tetrahedron, where the four vertices are on the boundary $\mathbb{CP}^1$. The four ...
Trimok's user avatar
  • 275
2 votes
1 answer
171 views

coarser than triangulations "almost partitions" into simplices

The total space $T$ of an embedded into $\mathbb{R}^n$ pure $n$-dimensional simplicial complex (in other words, the union of finitely many $n$-dimensional compact convex polytopes) sometimes admits an ...
Dima Pasechnik's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
805 views

Wrapping a convex polyhedron with string

This is a meta-question, rather than a specific mathematical question. I am seeking a mathematical definition that captures the following physical idea. Suppose you have a convex polyhedron $P \...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
3k views

What nets fold to polyhedra?

There is a classic (and open) problem asking whether every polyhedron can be unfolded to give a non-overlapping net. The converse problem has been studied asking which polygons can be folded in some ...
Edmund Harriss's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
918 views

Acute triangulation

Assume that $S$ is a finite 2-dimensional simplicial complex equipped with a metric $d$ such that each triangle is isometric to a plane triangle (so $(S,d)$ is a polyhedral space). Is it possible ...
Anton Petrunin's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
543 views

Maximum volume convex body coverable by a unit square

Suppose you are given a single unit square, and you are permitted to cut it into $k$ (connected) pieces (where $k=1$ means just the square). Your task is to construct the largest volume convex body ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
1k views

Number of Hyper-cube cuts

In how many ways a single hyperplane can cut a hypercube? Two "ways" are considered different, if the sets into which they divide vertices of the hypercube are different. So e.g. a line can cut 2-...
Robert's user avatar
  • 51
4 votes
1 answer
360 views

On Dehn's infinitesimal rigidity theorem

Dehn's theorem states that any simplicial strictly convex polyedron P in Euclidean 3-space is infinitesimally rigid (that is, any non-trivial first order deformation of P induces a variation of its ...
guillaume's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
982 views

Placing points on a sphere so that no 3 lie close to the same plane

Motivation I am working with arbitrary parallelopiped tilings given by projection from a higher dimensional space. The collection of tiles, and some properties of the higher dimensional space are ...
Edmund Harriss's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
277 views

What is the smallest diameter ring a non-convex polyhedron can pass through in 3-space?

The question is mostly in the title: What is the smallest diameter ring a non-convex polyhedron can pass through in 3-space? Imagine I have some non-convex polyhedron $P$, and I would like to ...
UltraBlue06's user avatar
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, ...
UltraBlue06's user avatar
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 ...
Edmund Harriss's user avatar
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 ...
tmaric's user avatar
  • 143
11 votes
3 answers
3k views

polyhedra with equilateral pentagons faces

In page http://loki3.com/poly/isohedra.html around six polyhedra with equilateral pentagons as faces are shown: a pyritohedron, icositetrahedrons... Is there a complete list of this kind of polyhedra? ...
jolumij's user avatar
  • 111
4 votes
1 answer
488 views

Are there non-tiling polyhedra that pack arbitrarily well?

The fact that an upper bound on the packing density $< 1$ has only recently been exhibited for regular tetrahedra in $\mathbb{R}^3$ (see this question) suggests that proving concrete bounds of ...
mjqxxxx's user avatar
  • 131
45 votes
1 answer
2k views

Pach's "Animals": What if the genus is positive?

Janos Pach asked a deep question 23 years ago (1988) that remains unsolved today: Can every animal—a topological ball in $\mathbb{R^3}$ composed of unit cubes glued face-to-face—be ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
1k views

Floating polyhedra with fair equilibria

Is there a homogeneous convex polyhedron which floats so that some subset (perhaps all) of its faces is distinguished as "up" (above the water line) in stable equilibrium, each face with equal ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
489 views

Shortest morphing between shapes embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$

I am interested in what in computer graphics is called morphing between two topologically equivalent shapes $S_0$ and $S_1$ in 3D. This is a continuous "path" of shapes $S_t$, each embedded and all ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 $...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
450 views

Dissecting a tetrahedron into orthoschemes

Is there a way to dissect any tetrahedron into a finite number of orthoschemes? I know that for a tetrahedron which only has acute angles, one can take the center of the inscribed circle and project ...
Opt's user avatar
  • 601
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

Finding a minimum bounding sphere for a frustum

I have a frustum (truncated pyramid defined by six planes) and I need to compute a bounding sphere for this frustum that's as small as possible. I can choose the centre of the sphere to be right in ...
Bob's user avatar
  • 31
19 votes
2 answers
1k views

Four Dimensional Origami Axioms

What are the axioms of four dimensional Origami. If standard Origami is considered three dimensional, it has points, lines, surfaces and folds to create a three dimensional form from the folded ...
Kent Palmer's user avatar

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