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15 votes
1 answer
530 views

Dividing a polyhedron into two similar copies

The paper Dividing a polygon into two similar polygons proves that there are only three families of polygons that are irrep-2-tiles (can be subdivided into similar copies of the original). Right ...
Kepler's Triangle's user avatar
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 $\#\text{edges}+6$ (...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
4 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is there a pyramid with all four faces being right triangles? [closed]

If such a pyramid exists, could someone provide the coordinates of its vertices?
Humberto José Bortolossi's user avatar
96 votes
4 answers
5k views

A curious relation between angles and lengths of edges of a tetrahedron

Consider a Euclidean tetrahedron with lengths of edges $$ l_{12}, l_{13}, l_{14}, l_{23}, l_{24}, l_{34} $$ and dihedral angles $$ \alpha_{12}, \alpha_{13}, \alpha_{14}, \alpha_{23}, \alpha_{24}, \...
Daniil Rudenko's user avatar
14 votes
12 answers
1k views

Database of integer edge lengths that can form tetrahedrons

Is there a collection of lists of six integer edge lengths that form a tetrahedron? Is there a computer program for generating such lists? I need to find approximately thirty such tetrahedral ...
Pierre Humbert Leblanc's user avatar
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 ...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
26 votes
7 answers
3k views

What's that shape? Inferring a 3D shape from random shadows

Let $P$ be a bounded, simply connected region of $\mathbb{R}^3$. $P$ could be a polyhedron, or a smooth shape, or an arbitrary shape; I'll assume below that $P$ is a (non-degenerate, perhaps non-...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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
5 votes
2 answers
316 views

Dimension of configuration space of triangulated convex polyhedron

The configuration space of all tetrahedra is $5$-dimensional, perhaps a non-obvious fact. There are $12$ face angles, but the sum of each of the four faces angles is $\pi$, reducing $12$ to $8$ ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
165 views

Tangent cone on polyhedral spaces

Let $X$ be an n-dimensional polyhedral space with, say, $n\geq 3.$ Let also $p\in X$ be a vertex on a triangulation $\tau$ of $X,$ so a vertex on the polyhedral space. The tangent cone (as a metric ...
Lucas L.'s user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
142 views

On polyhedrons with specified numbers of congruent faces

Basic question: Given 3 integers n, n1 and n2 such that n1+n2 = n, to form an n-face polyhedron such that n1 of its faces are mutually congruent and the remaining n2 faces are different but congruent ...
Nandakumar R's user avatar
  • 5,979
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
98 views

Intersection of conical neighbourhoods on a polyhedral space

Let $P$ be a non-negatively curved (in the Alexandrov sense) polyhedral space (of dimension 3, say), $p,q\in P$ be vertices, and let $e$ be an edge connecting $p$ and $q$. Assume $e$ has cone angle $0&...
Lucas L.'s user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
75 views

Generic infinitesimal rigidity of polyhedra

Let $M$ be a 1-skeleton of a triangulation of a sphere with $V$ vertices and $E$ edges. Definition 1 A polyhedron is a map $M\to \mathbb R^3$ that is affine on edges (and non-degenerate on faces). The ...
Dmitrii Korshunov's user avatar
-4 votes
1 answer
149 views

Hilbert’s third problem and what a polyhedron is [closed]

What is the definition of a polyhedron used by Hilbert’s third problem?
Daniel Sebald's user avatar
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 ...
ElliptCg's user avatar
  • 131
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
57 views

Inside-out dissections of solids

We add to Inside-out dissections of polygons - a generalization. The inside-out (fully inside-out) dissections are defined on pages linked there. How does one inside-out dissect a tetrahedron into ...
Nandakumar R's user avatar
  • 5,979
6 votes
1 answer
264 views

Can a dodecahedron be deformed into a great stellated dodecahedron?

Can a convex regular dodecahedron be deformed into a great stellated dodecahedron while keeping all pentagons planar and all edges of nonzero length the whole time?
Daniel Sebald's user avatar
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 $...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
246 views

Convex polyhedra with non-congruent faces

Question: Are there convex polyhedra wherein all faces are convex polygons with same area and perimeter and no two faces are mutually congruent? Remarks: If the answer to above is "no", then,...
Nandakumar R's user avatar
  • 5,979
0 votes
0 answers
115 views

Explicit equation for border of the Minkowski sum of sets

Assume we have sets of the form $$ M_j = \{x\in\mathbb{R}^d : f_j(x) \le 0,x \ge 0\} $$ where $x\ge 0$ means $x_i \ge 0 \quad \forall i=1,\dots, d$. Goal I am looking for an (explicit) representation ...
Felix Benning'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
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 ...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
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
2 votes
0 answers
94 views

Dodecahedron deformation II

(Follow-up to this question) Can a dodecahedron be deformed into a great stellated dodecahedron while maintaining the number of dimensions each element occupies?
Daniel Sebald's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
573 views

What are the known convex polyhedra with congruent faces?

Note: I originally asked this question on math.SE here, where I posted a bounty on the question but received no answers after a week despite apparent interest in the problem. I'm hoping MathOverflow ...
RavenclawPrefect's user avatar
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
6 votes
1 answer
244 views

Is Sydler's theorem concerning Dehn invariants constructive?

Sydler proved something of a converse to Dehn's negative resolution of Hilbert's 3rd problem. To quote Wikipedia, Sydler showed that "every two Euclidean polyhedra with the same volumes and Dehn ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
455 views

Dodecahedral rolling distance

Let a dodecahedron sit on the plane, with one face's vertices on an origin-centered unit circle. Fix the orientation so that the edge whose indices are $(1,2)$ is horizontal. For any $p \in \mathbb{R}...
Joseph O'Rourke'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
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is the average area of the shadow of a convex shape taken over all possible orientations?

If we take a sphere, its surface area is exactly 4 times the area of its shadow. How can it be generalised for any convex shape?
Betydlig's user avatar
  • 343
14 votes
1 answer
295 views

The space of triangles that fit inside a given triangle, parametrized by edge lengths

Given a triangle T with sides a, b, and c, describe its "fitting set," the set of all points (x,y,z) in 3-dimensions for which a triangle with sides x, y, z exists that fits in T. Such a set lies in ...
John E. Wetzel's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
159 views

Alexandrov's rigidity in higher dimensions

If $\Phi_1,\Phi_2$ are convex polyhedra in $\mathbb{R}^3$ such that the sets of outer normals to facets coincide, but $\Phi_1$ is not a translate of $\Phi_2$, then there exist two corresponding ...
Fedor Petrov's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
113 views

How to define and compute the degree of congruence of two rigid polyhedra in same type with knowing vertex coordinates?

If I have two sets of points in 3-dimensional space, each sets of points are the coordinates of vertices of a polyhedron. The two polyhedra have same type, so we don't need to consider the topological ...
DNQZ's user avatar
  • 31
0 votes
0 answers
127 views

Find tetrahedron vertex given 3 vertices of a face and the 3 opposite angles

I have the following tetrahedron: which I know the coordinates of $P$, $Q$ and $R$ and the value of angles $\theta_0$, $\theta_1$ and $\theta_2$. I need to find the coordinates of vertex $E$. Is that ...
Duloren's user avatar
  • 101
10 votes
2 answers
387 views

What is Kept Fixed for Flexible Spheres

For background to this question much recent exciting related things, see this videotaped lecture by Alexander Gaifullin. Consider a triangulation $K$ of a two-dimensional sphere and consider maps ...
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.7k
7 votes
3 answers
412 views

Average caliper diameter (mean width) of a polyhedron

Define the caliper diameter of a polyhedron as follows: Let $P_1$ and $P_2$ be two planes both of which are parallel to the x axis such that the perpendicular distance between $P_1$ and $P_2$ is the ...
JDoe2's user avatar
  • 101
1 vote
0 answers
74 views

Classification of pseudoregular polyhedra

In contrast to a regular polyhedron, which has one orbit of flags, I’ve been studying what I call pseudoregular polyhedra, which have two orbits of flags interchanged by conjugation (explained here). ...
Daniel Sebald's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
740 views

Are all Dehn invariants achievable?

The Dehn invariant of a polyhedron is a vector in $\mathbb{R}\otimes_{\mathbb{Z}}\mathbb{R}/2\pi\mathbb{Z}$ defined as the sum over the edges of the polyhedron of the terms $\sum\ell_i\otimes\theta_i$ ...
David Eppstein's user avatar
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
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
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 ...
Display name's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
230 views

A possible characterization of the cube?

Let $P$ be the $1$-skeleton of a convex polyhedron fixed in $\mathbb{R}^3$, and $|P|$ the sum of the Euclidean lengths of the edges of $P$. Let $P_1, P_2, P_3$ be the perpendicular projections of $P$ ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
282 views

Thinnest covering of the plane by regular pentagons

Q. Is it known what is the thinnest covering of the infinite plane by regular pentagons? By covering I mean every point of the plane is covered. By thinnest I mean the proportion of the plane covered ...
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
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