Eight Kite-Rhombus Solids, Plus Five All-Kite Polyhedra — the Convex Hulls of the Thirteen Archimedean-Catalan Compounds

Posted on 29 April 2018 by RobertLovesPi

In a kite-rhombus solid, or KRS, all faces are either kites or rhombi, and there are at least some of both of these quadrilateral-types as faces. I have found eight such polyhedra, all of which are formed by creating the convex hull of different Archimedean-Catalan base-dual compounds. Not all Archimedean-Catalan compounds produce kite-rhombus solids, but one of the eight that does is derived from the truncated dodecahedron, as explained below.

The next step is to create the compound of this solid and its dual, the triakis icosahedron. In the image below, this dual is the blue polyhedron.

The convex hull of this compound, below, I’m simply calling “the KRS derived from the truncated dodecahedron,” until and unless someone invents a better name for it.

The next KRS shown is derived, in the same manner, from the truncated tetrahedron.

Here is the KRS derived from the truncated cube.

The truncated icosahedron is the “seed” from which the next KRS shown is derived. This KRS is a “stretched” form of a zonohedron called the rhombic enneacontahedron.

Another of these kite-rhombus solids, shown below, is based on the truncated octahedron.

The next KRS shown is based on the rhombcuboctahedron.

Two of the Archimedeans are chiral, and they both produce chiral kite-rhombus solids. This one is derived from the snub cube.

Finally, to complete this set of eight, here is the KRS based on the snub dodecahedron.

You may be wondering what happens when this same process is applied to the other five Archimedean solids. The answer is that all-kite polyhedra are produced; they have no rhombic faces. Two are “stretched” forms of Catalan solids, and are derived from the cuboctahedron and the icosidodecahedron:

all kites based on the cuboctahedron also a stretching of the strombic icositetrahedron which is the dual of the rhombcuboctahedron

all kites based on the icosidodechadedron and a stretching of the strombic hexecontahedron which is the dual of the RID

If this procedure is applied to the rhombicosidodecahedron, the result is an all-kite polyhedron with two different face-types, as seen below.

The two remaining Archimedean solids are the great rhombcuboctahedron and the great rhombicosidodecahedron, each of which produces a polyhedron with three different types of kites as faces.

all kites based on the great rhombcuboctahedron

The polyhedron-manipulation and image-production for this post was performed using Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator, which may be purchased or tried for free at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

Standard and Faceted Versions, Side by Side, of Each of the Thirteen Archimedean Solids

Posted on 18 February 2016 by RobertLovesPi

These two polyhedra are the truncated tetrahedron on the left, plus at least one faceted version of that same Archimedean solid on the right. As you can see, in each case, the figures have the same set of vertices — but those vertices are connected in a different way in the two solids, giving the polyhedra different faces and edges.

(To see larger images of any picture in this post, simply click on it.)

The next three are the truncated cube, along with two different faceted truncated cubes on the right. The one at the top right was the first one I made — and then, after noticing its chirality, I made the other one, which is the compound of the first faceted truncated cube, plus its mirror-image. Some facetings of non-chiral polyhedra are themselves non-chiral, but, as you can see, chiral facetings of non-chiral polyhedra are also possible.

Faceted Trunc cube Compound of enantiomorphic pair

The next two images show a truncated octahedron, along with a faceted truncated octahedron. As these images show, sometimes faceted polyhedra are also interesting polyhedra compounds, such as this compound of three cuboids.

Faceted Trunc Octa and compound of three cuboids

The next polyhedra shown are a truncated dodecahedron, and a faceted truncated dodecahedron. Although faceted polyhedra do not have to be absurdly complex, this pair demonstrates that they certainly can be.

Next are the truncated icosahedron, along with one of its many facetings — and with this one (below, on the right) considerably less complex than the faceted polyhedron shown immediately above.

The next two shown are the cuboctahedron, along with one of its facetings, each face of which is a congruent isosceles triangle. This faceted polyhedron is also a compound — of six irregular triangular pyramids, each of a different color.

The next pair are the standard version, and a faceted version, of the rhombcuboctahedron, also known as the rhombicuboctahedron.

The great rhombcuboctahedron, along with one of its numerous possible facetings, comes next. This polyhedron is also called the great rhombicuboctahedron, as well as the truncated cuboctahedron.

The next pair are the snub cube, one of two Archimedean solids which is chiral, and one of its facetings, which “inherited” its chirality from the original.

The icosidodecahedron, and one of its facetings, are next.

The next pair are the original, and one of the faceted versions, of the rhombicosidodecahedron.

The next two are the great rhombicosidodecahedron, and one of its facetings. This polyhedron is also called the truncated icosidodecahedron.

Finally, here are the snub dodecahedron (the second chiral Archimedean solid, and the only other one, other than the snub cube, which possesses chirality), along with one of the many facetings of that solid. This faceting is also chiral, as are all snub dodecahedron (and snub cube) facetings.

Each of these polyhedral images was created using Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator, software available at this website.

The Archimedean Solid That Isn’t

Posted on 10 June 2014 by RobertLovesPi

A common definition for “Archimedean solid” goes like this: Archimedean solids (1) are convex polyhedra, (2) include only faces which are regular, convex, non-intersecting polygons, (3) have more than one type of regular polygon used as faces, and (4) have the same set of polygons meeting at each vertex, in the same pattern. Archimedes himself enumerated the thirteen Archimedean solids, noted that two of them have mirror-images, and it has been proven that no more exist . . . provided the definition above is tweaked, just a little. Why isn’t this definition adequate? Here’s why.

By the definition given above, both of these polyhedra qualify as Archimedean solids . . . but only the top one is included in the official set of thirteen. It’s called the rhombcuboctahedron (or the rhombicuboctahedron). Both polyhedra shown have eighteen square faces, and eight triangular faces, all regular. In each one, also, the face-pattern around each vertex is square/square/square/triangle. However, the bottom figure, despite this, is not considered an Archimedean solid. Its existence is the reason — the only reason, to my knowledge — that the definition given above for the Archimedean solids is inadequate.

When I first encountered these two polyhedra side-by-side, I was reading Peter Cromwell’s excellent book, Polyhedra, and it showed them as simple black-and-white wire-frame images. It took an embarrassing amount of time for me to spot the difference between them, so please don’t feel bad if you also are having trouble seeing it. To spot the difference, if you haven’t already, watch the triangles. In the top image, which is a true Archimedean solid, the four triangles at the top of the polyhedron stay right above the corresponding four triangles at the bottom of the same polyhedron. In the second image, however, this is not the case, due to a 45° rotation of the bottom “cap” of the polyhedron shown.

To fix this problem, and exclude the second figure, an extra requirement has been added to the list that defines the Archimedean solids: not only must each vertex be locally identical, but there must also be a global isometry shared by all vertices. In lay terms, that means that you can look at any vertex you choose, and see the same pattern for the other vertices, their orientation relative to each other, and the orientation of the faces surrounding them, as well. The first polyhedron shown here passes this test, but the second does not.

This troublesome-but-interesting second polyhedron has several names. I usually call it the pseudorhombcuboctahedron. Other names include the pseudorhombicuboctahedron (note the extra “i”), and Miller’s solid (based on the work of J.C.P. Miller, as described in Cromwell’s book). As #37 in Norman Johnson’s set of 92 Johnson solids, of which it is unambiguously a member, it is called the elongated square gyrobicupola. Finally, there are people who disagree with what I have written above . . . and they often refer to the bottom polyhedron shown as, simply, “the fourteenth Archimedean solid.”

Image credit: both pictures above were generated using Stella 4d, software you can buy, or try for free, at www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

Five of the Thirteen Archimedean Solids Have Multiple English Names

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Four Archimedean Solids with Multiple English Names

I call the polyhedron above the rhombcuboctahedron. Other names for it are the rhombicuboctahedron (note the “i”), the small rhombcuboctahedron, and the small rhombicuboctahedron. Sometimes, the word “small,” when it appears, is put in parentheses. Of these multiple names, all of which I have seen in print, the second one given above is the most common, but I prefer to leave the “i” out, simply to make the word look and sound less like “rhombicosidodecahedron,” one of the polyhedra coming later in this post.

My preferred name for this polyhedron is the great rhombcuboctahedron, and it is also called the great rhombicuboctahedron. The only difference there is the “i,” and my reasoning for preferring the first name is the same as with its “little brother,” above. However, as with the first polyhedron in this post, the “i”-included version is more common than the name I prefer.

Unfortunately, this second polyhedron has another name, one I intensely dislike, but probably the most popular one of all — the truncated cuboctahedron. Johannes Kepler came up with this name, centuries ago, but there’s a big problem with it: if you truncate a cuboctahedron, you don’t get square faces where the truncated parts are removed. Instead, you get rectangles, and then have to deform the result to turn the rectangles into squares. Other names for this same polyhedron include the rhombitruncated cuboctahedron (given it by Magnus Wenninger) and the omnitruncated cube or cantitruncated cube (both of these names originated with Norman Johnson). My source for the named originators of these names is the Wikipedia article for this polyhedron, and, of course, the sources cited there.

This third polyhedron (which, incidentally, is the one of the thirteen Archimedean solids I find most attractive) is most commonly called the rhombicosidodecahedron. To my knowledge, no one intentionally leaves out the “i” after “rhomb-” in this name, and, for once, the most popular name is also the one I prefer. However, it also has a “big brother,” just like the polyhedron at the top of this post. For that reason, this polyhedron is sometimes called the small rhombicosidodecahedron, or even the (small) rhombicosidodecahedron, parentheses included.

I call this polyhedron the great rhombicosidodecahedron, and many others do as well — that is its second-most-popular name, and identifies it as the “big brother” of the third polyhedron shown in this post. Less frequently, you will find it referred to as the rhombitruncated icosidodecahedron (coined by Wenninger) or the omnitruncated dodecahedron or icosahedron (names given it by Johnson). Again, Wikipedia, and the sources cited there, are my sources for these attributions.

While I don’t use Wenninger’s nor Johnson’s names for this polyhedron, their terms for it don’t bother me, either, for they represent attempts to reduce confusion, rather than increase it. As with the second polyhedron shown above, this confusion started with Kepler, who, in his finite wisdom, called this polyhedron the truncated icosidodecahedron — a name which has “stuck” through the centuries, and is still its most popular name. However, it’s a bad name, unlike the others given it by Wenninger and Johnson. Here’s why: if you truncate an icosidodecahedron (just as with the truncation of a cuboctahedron, described in the commentary about the second polyhedron pictured above), you don’t get the square faces you see here. Instead, the squares come out of the truncation as rectangles, and then edge lengths must be adjusted in order to make all the faces regular, once more. I see that as cheating, and that’s why I wish the name “truncated icosidodecahedron,” along with “truncated cuboctahedron” for the great rhombcuboctahedron, would simply go away.

Here’s the last of the Archimedean solids with more than one English name:

Most who recognize this shape, including myself, call it the truncated cube. A few people, though, are extreme purists when it comes to Greek-derived words — worse than me, and I take that pretty far sometimes — and they won’t even call an ordinary (Platonic) cube a cube, preferring “hexahedron,” instead. These same people, predictably, call this Archimedean solid the truncated hexahedron. They are, technically, correct, I must admit. However, with the cube being, easily, the polyhedron most familiar to the general public, almost none of whom know, let alone use, the word “hexahedron,” this alternate term for the truncated cube will, I am certain, never gain much popularity.

It is unfortunate that five of the thirteen Archimedean solids have multiple names, for learning to spell and pronounce just one name for each of them would be task enough. Unlike in the field of chemistry, however, geometricians have no equivalent to the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists), the folks who, among other things, select official, permanent names and symbols for newly-synthesized elements. For this reason, the multiple-name problem for certain polyhedra isn’t going away, any time soon.

(Image credit: a program called Stella 4d, available at www.software3d.com/Stella.php, was used to create all of the pictures in this post.)

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The Archimedean Solids

This is a separate, single-purpose blog of mine, and it has been completed, meaning no further posts will be made there. It contains rotating images of all thirteen Archimedean solids, including both enantiomers of the two which are chiral, as well as a net for each of these polyhedra.