A Twice-Zonohedrified Dodecahedron

If one starts with a dodecahedron, and then creates a zonohedron based on that solid’s vertices, the result is a rhombic enneacontahedron.

If, in turn, one then creates a new zonohedron based on the vertices of this rhombic enneacontahedron, the result is this 1230-faced polyhedron — a twice-zonohedrified dodecahedron. Included in its faces are thirty dodecagons, sixty hexagons, and sixty octagons, all of them equilateral.

Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator was used to perform these transformations, and to create the rotating images above. You can try this program for yourself, free, at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

A Zonohedron Which Is Also a Symmetrohedron

I made this using Stella 4d, which you can try for free at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php.

This zonohedron is based on the icosidodecahedron / rhombic triacontahedron compound — more specifically, on its edges. Twelve faces are regular decagons, twenty are regular hexagons, sixty are squares, and the only irregular faces are the thirty equilateral octagons. That’s 122 faces in all.

A Zonohedron with 1382 Faces, Based on the Rhombicosidodecahedron

This zonohedron was formed from zones based on the faces, edges, and vertices of a rhombicosidodecahedron. The first image shows it colored by face type.

Zonohedrified Rhombicosidodeca 1382 faces by face type

The second image has the faces colored by number of sides.

Zonohedrified Rhombicosidodeca 1382 faces bynumber of sides per face.gif

Finally, here’s one in “rainbow color mode.”

Zonohedrified Rhombis rainbow.gif

These images were all formed using Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator, which you can try for free right here.

A Zonohedron Featuring Hexadecagons

Zonohedrified Trunc Octa v e f.gif

I stumbled upon this zonohedron by adding zones to a truncated octahedron, based on its faces, edges, and vertices. It was created using Stella 4d, which you may try for free at http://www.software3d.com/Stella.php. To the best of my recollection, this is the only zonohedron I have seen which includes rhombi, hexagons, octagons, and, of course, the red hexadecagons.

A Second Type of Double Icosahedron, and Related Polyhedra

After seeing my post about what I called the “double icosahedron,” which is two complete icosahedra joined at one common triangular face, my friend Tom Ruen brought my attention to a similar figure he likes. This second type of double icosahedron is made of two icosahedra which meet at an internal pentagon, rather than a triangular face. Tom jokingly referred to this figure as “a double patty pentagonal antiprism in a pentagonal pyramid bun.”

Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid one color

It wasn’t hard to make this figure using Stella 4d, the program I use for polyhedral manipulation and image-creation (you can try it for free here), but I didn’t make it out of icosahedra. It was easier to make this figure from gyroelongated pentagonal pyramids, or “J11s” for short. This polyhedron is one of the 92 Johnson solids.

J11.gif

To make the polyhedron Tom had brought to my attention, I simply augmented one J11 with another J11, joining them at their pentagonal faces. Curious about what the dual of this solid would look like, I generated it with Stella.

Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid dual.gif

The dual of the double J11 appears to be a modification of a dodecahedron, which is no surprise, for the dodecahedron is the dual of the icosahedron.

I next explored the stellation-series of the double J11, and found several attractive polyhedra there. This one is the double J11’s 4th stellation.

Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid 4th stellation.gif

The next polyhedron shown is the double J11’s 16th stellation.

Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid 16th stellation.gif

Here is the 30th stellation:

Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid 30th stellation.gif

I also liked the 43rd:

Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid 43rd stellation.gif

The next one shown is the double J11’s 55th stellation.

Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid 55th stellation.gif

Finally, the 56th stellation is shown below. These stellations, as well as the double J11 itself, and its dual, all have five-fold dihedral symmetry.

Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid 56th stellation

Having “mined” the double J11’s stellation-series for interesting polyhedra, I next turned to zonohedrification of this solid. The next image shows the zonohedron based on the double J11’s faces. It has many rhombic faces in two “hemispheres,” separated by a belt of octagonal zonogons. This zonohedron, as well as the others which follow, all have ten-fold dihedral symmetry.

Zonohedrified Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid f.gif

Zonohedrification based on vertices produced this result:

Zonohedrified Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid v.gif

The next zonohedron shown was formed based on the edges of the double J11.

Zonohedrified Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid e.gif

Next, I tried zonohedrification based on vertices and edges, both.

Zonohedrified Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid v e.gif

Next, vertices and faces:

Zonohedrified Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid v f.gif

The next zonohedrification-combination I tried was to add zones based on the double J11’s edges and faces.

Zonohedrified Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid e f.gif

Finally, I ended this exploration of the double J11’s “family” by adding zones to build a zonohedron based on all three of these polyhedron characteristics: vertices, edges, and faces.

Zonohedrified Augmented Gyroelongated Penta Pyramid v e f.gif

A Zoo of Zonohedra

Zonohedra are a subset of polyhedra with all faces in pairs of parallel and congruent zonogons. Zonogons are polygons with sides which occur only as parallel and congruent pairs of line segments. As a consequence of this, the faces of zonohedra must have even numbers of sides.

Considering all the restrictions on zonohedra, it may be surprising that there is so much variety among them. Every polyhedron shown in this post is a zonohedron. The colors are chosen so that all four-sided zonogons have one color, all six-sided zonogons have a second color, and so on.

Octagon-dominated zonohedron.gif

Zonohedrified Cobvjnvex hull.gif

Zonohedrified Conjhvjvvex hull.gif

Zonohedrified Conjhvvex hull.gif

Zonohedrified Connbvj,njkvex hull.gif

Zonohedrified Convb bvvex hull.gif

Zonohedrified Convehckhcx hull.gif

Zonohedrified Convex hull  186 faces.gif

Zonohedrified Convex hull 132 faces

Zonohedrified Convex hull 138 faces.gif

Zonohedrified Convex hull 306 faces colored by number of edges per face.gif

Zonohedrified Convex hull features octadecagons.gif

Zonohedrified Convex hull.gif

Zonohedrified Convex hullygduyd.gif

Zonohedrified Cube 2.gif

Zonohedrified Ochjgta.gif

Zonohedrified Octa 2

Zonohedrified Octa 3.gif

Zonohedrified Octa z.gif

Zonohedrified Octa.gif

Zonohedrified Pmhgcholy.gif

Zonohedrified Polly.gif

Zonohedrified Poly.gif

Zonohedrified Snub Cube.gif

Zonohedrified tet.gif

Zonohedrified Trunc Dodeca featuring octadecagons.gif

Zonohedrified Trunc Dodeca.gif

Zonohedrified Trunc Tetra vef.gif

Zonohedrified Trunc Tetra.gif

Zonohedrified Trunc Tetrahedron.gif

I made all of these using Stella 4d: Polyhedron Navigator. This program may be tried for free at this website.