Compound of six cubes with rotational freedom

Compound of six cubes with rotational freedom
TypeUniform compound
IndexUC7
Polyhedra6 cubes
Faces12+24 squares
Edges72
Vertices48
Symmetry groupoctahedral (Oh)
Subgroup restricting to one constituent4-fold rotational (C4h)

This uniform polyhedron compound is a symmetric arrangement of 6 cubes, considered as square prisms. It can be constructed by superimposing six identical cubes, and then rotating them in pairs about the three axes that pass through the centres of two opposite cubic faces. Each cube is rotated by an equal (and opposite, within a pair) angle θ.

When θ=0, all six cubes coincide. When θ is 45 degrees, the cubes coincide in pairs yielding (two superimposed copies of) the compound of three cubes.

Cartesian coordinates

Cartesian coordinates for the vertices of this compound are all the permutations of

(±(cosθ+sinθ), ±(cosθ−sinθ), ±1)

References