The Seven Zonish Rhombicosidodecahedra Based On Symmetry Axes

Zonish Versions of the Rhombicosidodecahedron

The top image here is of a zonish polyhedron based on adding zones along the five-fold symmetry axes of a rhombicosidodecahedron. All its edges are the same length, and its 62 faces include thirty elongated octagons, twelve regular pentagons, and twenty triangles. All of its edges have the same length.

The edges of this next polyhedron are also all of the same length. It was made in the same way, except that zones were added along both three- and five-fold symmetry axes of a rhombicosidodecahedron. Its 182 faces include thirty elongated dodecagons, twenty triangles, twelve regular pentagons, sixty squares, and sixty rhombi.

182 faces incl 30 elongated dodecagons and 12 pentagons and 60 squares and sixty rhombi and twenty triangles

If only the three-fold symmetry axes are used to make a zonish polyhedron from a rhombicosidodecahedron, this next polyhedron, also with all edge lengths equal, is the result. It also has 182 faces, and they are of the same type as in the one immediately before, except that thirty elongated octagons replace the dodecagons from that polyhedron.

zonish rid

A rhombicosidodecahedron also has two-fold symmetry axes. If only those axes are used to make a zonish rhombicosidodecahedron, this next polyhedron is the result:  a modified form of the great rhombicosidodecahedron, with unequal edge lengths.

zonish rid

If the two- and three-fold symmetry axes are both used, the result, once again, is a 182-faces polyhedron, but it also has unequal edge lengths, and none of its faces are regular polygons. It is shown below. There are twelve decagons, sixty rectangles, sixty hexagons of one type, twenty hexagons of another type,  and thirty octagons.

zonish rid

Another possible combination is to use the two- and five-fold symmetry axes to create a zonish rhombicosidodecahedron. This yields a polyhedron with 122 faces, with all except the sixty squares being irregular. The other faces are twelve decagons, thirty octagons, and twenty hexagons:

zonish rid

Finally, there is one last combination — using the two-, three-, and five-fold symmetry axes, all at once. Here’s what it looks like:

zonish rid

As one should expect, this produces a zonish polyhedron with more faces than any of the earlier ones shown above: 242 in all. As in the last one shown, only the sixty squares are regular, although the sixty pink hexagons are at least equilateral. There are also sixty rectangles, twenty hexagons of a second type, thirty dodecagons, and twelve decagons.

All of these zonish rhombicosidodecahedra were created using Stella 4d, software available at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

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