Octahedron

Regular octahedron
(Click here for rotating model)
Type	Platonic solid
Elements	F = 8, E = 12 V = 6 (χ = 2)
Faces by sides	8{3}
Conway notation	O aT
Schläfli symbols	{3,4}
Schläfli symbols	r{3,3} or ${\begin{Bmatrix}3\\3\end{Bmatrix}}$
Face configuration	V4.4.4
Wythoff symbol	4 \| 2 3
Coxeter diagram
Symmetry	O_h, BC₃, [4,3], (*432)
Rotation group	O, [4,3]⁺, (432)
References	U₀₅, C₁₇, W₂
Properties	regular, convex deltahedron
Dihedral angle	109.47122° = arccos(−1/3)
3.3.3.3 (Vertex figure)	Cube (dual polyhedron)
Net

In geometry, an octahedron (plural: octahedra) is a polyhedron with eight faces, twelve edges, and six vertices. The term is most commonly used to refer to the regular octahedron, a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet at each vertex.

A regular octahedron is the dual polyhedron of a cube. It is a rectified tetrahedron. It is a square bipyramid in any of three orthogonal orientations. It is also a triangular antiprism in any of four orientations.

An octahedron is the three-dimensional case of the more general concept of a cross polytope.

A regular octahedron is a 3-ball in the Manhattan ( $ℓ$ ₁) metric.

Regular octahedron

Dimensions

If the edge length of a regular octahedron is a, the radius of a circumscribed sphere (one that touches the octahedron at all vertices) is

r_{u}={\frac {a}{2}}{\sqrt {2}}\approx 0.707\cdot a

and the radius of an inscribed sphere (tangent to each of the octahedron's faces) is

r_{i}={\frac {a}{6}}{\sqrt {6}}\approx 0.408\cdot a

while the midradius, which touches the middle of each edge, is

r_{m}={\frac {a}{2}}=0.5\cdot a

Orthogonal projections

The octahedron has four special orthogonal projections, centered, on an edge, vertex, face, and normal to a face. The second and third correspond to the B₂ and A₂ Coxeter planes.

Orthogonal projections
Centered by	Edge	Face Normal	Vertex	Face
Image
Projective symmetry	[2]	[2]	[4]	[6]

Spherical tiling

The octahedron can also be represented as a spherical tiling, and projected onto the plane via a stereographic projection. This projection is conformal, preserving angles but not areas or lengths. Straight lines on the sphere are projected as circular arcs on the plane.

Orthographic projection	Stereographic projection

Cartesian coordinates

An octahedron with edge length √2 can be placed with its center at the origin and its vertices on the coordinate axes; the Cartesian coordinates of the vertices are then

( ±1, 0, 0 );

( 0, ±1, 0 );

( 0, 0, ±1 ).

In an x–y–z Cartesian coordinate system, the octahedron with center coordinates (a, b, c) and radius r is the set of all points (x, y, z) such that

\left|x-a\right|+\left|y-b\right|+\left|z-c\right|=r.

Area and volume

The surface area A and the volume V of a regular octahedron of edge length a are:

A=2{\sqrt {3}}a^{2}\approx 3.464a^{2}

V={\frac {1}{3}}{\sqrt {2}}a^{3}\approx 0.471a^{3}

Thus the volume is four times that of a regular tetrahedron with the same edge length, while the surface area is twice (because we have 8 rather than 4 triangles).

If an octahedron has been stretched so that it obeys the equation

\left|{\frac {x}{x_{m}}}\right|+\left|{\frac {y}{y_{m}}}\right|+\left|{\frac {z}{z_{m}}}\right|=1,

the formulas for the surface area and volume expand to become

A=4\,x_{m}\,y_{m}\,z_{m}\times {\sqrt {{\frac {1}{x_{m}^{2}}}+{\frac {1}{y_{m}^{2}}}+{\frac {1}{z_{m}^{2}}}}},

V={\frac {4}{3}}\,x_{m}\,y_{m}\,z_{m}.

Additionally the inertia tensor of the stretched octahedron is

I={\begin{bmatrix}{\frac {1}{10}}m(y_{m}^{2}+z_{m}^{2})&0&0\\0&{\frac {1}{10}}m(x_{m}^{2}+z_{m}^{2})&0\\0&0&{\frac {1}{10}}m(x_{m}^{2}-y_{m}^{2})\end{bmatrix}}.

These reduce to the equations for the regular octahedron when

x_{m}=y_{m}=z_{m}=a\,{\frac {\sqrt {2}}{2}}.

Geometric relations

The octahedron represents the central intersection of two tetrahedra

The interior of the compound of two dual tetrahedra is an octahedron, and this compound, called the stella octangula, is its first and only stellation. Correspondingly, a regular octahedron is the result of cutting off from a regular tetrahedron, four regular tetrahedra of half the linear size (i.e. rectifying the tetrahedron). The vertices of the octahedron lie at the midpoints of the edges of the tetrahedron, and in this sense it relates to the tetrahedron in the same way that the cuboctahedron and icosidodecahedron relate to the other Platonic solids. One can also divide the edges of an octahedron in the ratio of the golden mean to define the vertices of an icosahedron. This is done by first placing vectors along the octahedron's edges such that each face is bounded by a cycle, then similarly partitioning each edge into the golden mean along the direction of its vector. There are five octahedra that define any given icosahedron in this fashion, and together they define a regular compound.

Octahedra and tetrahedra can be alternated to form a vertex, edge, and face-uniform tessellation of space, called the octet truss by Buckminster Fuller. This is the only such tiling save the regular tessellation of cubes, and is one of the 28 convex uniform honeycombs. Another is a tessellation of octahedra and cuboctahedra.

The octahedron is unique among the Platonic solids in having an even number of faces meeting at each vertex. Consequently, it is the only member of that group to possess mirror planes that do not pass through any of the faces.

Using the standard nomenclature for Johnson solids, an octahedron would be called a square bipyramid. Truncation of two opposite vertices results in a square bifrustum.

The octahedron is 4-connected, meaning that it takes the removal of four vertices to disconnect the remaining vertices. It is one of only four 4-connected simplicial well-covered polyhedra, meaning that all of the maximal independent sets of its vertices have the same size. The other three polyhedra with this property are the pentagonal dipyramid, the snub disphenoid, and an irregular polyhedron with 12 vertices and 20 triangular faces.^[1]

Uniform colorings and symmetry

There are 3 uniform colorings of the octahedron, named by the triangular face colors going around each vertex: 1212, 1112, 1111.

The octahedron's symmetry group is O_h, of order 48, the three dimensional hyperoctahedral group. This group's subgroups include D_3d (order 12), the symmetry group of a triangular antiprism; D_4h (order 16), the symmetry group of a square bipyramid; and T_d (order 24), the symmetry group of a rectified tetrahedron. These symmetries can be emphasized by different colorings of the faces.

Name	Octahedron	Rectified tetrahedron (Tetratetrahedron)	Triangular antiprism	Square bipyramid	Rhombic fusil
Image (Face coloring)	(1111)	(1212)	(1112)	(1111)	(1111)
Coxeter diagram		=
Schläfli symbol	{3,4}	r{3,3}	s{2,6} sr{2,3}	ft{2,4} { } + {4}	ftr{2,2} { } + { } + { }
Wythoff symbol	4 \| 3 2	2 \| 4 3	2 \| 6 2 \| 2 3 2
Symmetry	O_h, [4,3], (*432)	T_d, [3,3], (*332)	D_3d, [2⁺,6], (2*3) D₃, [2,3]⁺, (322)	D_4h, [2,4], (*422)	D_2h, [2,2], (*222)
Order	48	24	12 6	16	8

Nets

It has eleven arrangements of nets.

Dual

The octahedron is the dual polyhedron to the cube.

Faceting

The uniform tetrahemihexahedron is a tetrahedral symmetry faceting of the regular octahedron, sharing edge and vertex arrangement. It has four of the triangular faces, and 3 central squares.

Octahedron	Tetrahemihexahedron

Irregular octahedra

The following polyhedra are combinatorially equivalent to the regular polyhedron. They all have six vertices, eight triangular faces, and twelve edges that correspond one-for-one with the features of a regular octahedron.

Triangular antiprisms: Two faces are equilateral, lie on parallel planes, and have a common axis of symmetry. The other six triangles are isosceles.
Tetragonal bipyramids, in which at least one of the equatorial quadrilaterals lies on a plane. The regular octahedron is a special case in which all three quadrilaterals are planar squares.
Schönhardt polyhedron, a non-convex polyhedron that cannot be partitioned into tetrahedra without introducing new vertices.
Bricard octahedron, a non-convex self-crossing flexible polyhedron

Other convex octahedra

More generally, an octahedron can be any polyhedron with eight faces. The regular octahedron has 6 vertices and 12 edges, the minimum for an octahedron; irregular octahedra may have as many as 12 vertices and 18 edges.^[2] There are 257 topologically distinct convex octahedra, excluding mirror images. More specifically there are 2, 11, 42, 74, 76, 38, 14 for octahedra with 6 to 12 vertices respectively.^[3]^[4] (Two polyhedra are "topologically distinct" if they have intrinsically different arrangements of faces and vertices, such that it is impossible to distort one into the other simply by changing the lengths of edges or the angles between edges or faces.)

Some better known irregular octahedra include the following:

Hexagonal prism: Two faces are parallel regular hexagons; six squares link corresponding pairs of hexagon edges.
Heptagonal pyramid: One face is a heptagon (usually regular), and the remaining seven faces are triangles (usually isosceles). It is not possible for all triangular faces to be equilateral.
Truncated tetrahedron: The four faces from the tetrahedron are truncated to become regular hexagons, and there are four more equilateral triangle faces where each tetrahedron vertex was truncated.
Tetragonal trapezohedron: The eight faces are congruent kites.

Octahedra in the physical world

Octahedra in nature

Fluorite octahedron.

Natural crystals of diamond, alum or fluorite are commonly octahedral, as the space-filling tetrahedral-octahedral honeycomb.
The plates of kamacite alloy in octahedrite meteorites are arranged paralleling the eight faces of an octahedron.
Many metal ions coordinate six ligands in an octahedral or distorted octahedral configuration.
Widmanstätten patterns in nickel-iron crystals

Octahedra in art and culture

Two identically formed rubik's snakes can approximate an octahedron.

Especially in roleplaying games, this solid is known as a "d8", one of the more common polyhedral dice.
In the film Tron (1982), the character Bit took this shape as the "Yes" state.
If each edge of an octahedron is replaced by a one-ohm resistor, the resistance between opposite vertices is 1/2 ohm, and that between adjacent vertices 5/12 ohm.^[5]
Six musical notes can be arranged on the vertices of an octahedron in such a way that each edge represents a consonant dyad and each face represents a consonant triad; see hexany.

Tetrahedral Truss

A framework of repeating tetrahedrons and octahedrons was invented by Buckminster Fuller in the 1950s, known as a space frame, commonly regarded as the strongest structure for resisting cantilever stresses.

Related polyhedra

A regular octahedron can be augmented into a tetrahedron by adding 4 tetrahedra on alternated faces. Adding tetrahedra to all 8 faces creates the stellated octahedron.

tetrahedron	stellated octahedron

The octahedron is one of a family of uniform polyhedra related to the cube.

Uniform octahedral polyhedra
Symmetry: [4,3], (*432)							[4,3]⁺ (432)	[1⁺,4,3] = [3,3] (*332)		[3⁺,4] (3*2)
{4,3}	t{4,3}	r{4,3} r{3^1,1}	t{3,4} t{3^1,1}	{3,4} {3^1,1}	rr{4,3} s₂{3,4}	tr{4,3}	sr{4,3}	h{4,3} {3,3}	h₂{4,3} t{3,3}	s{3,4} s{3^1,1}

		=	=	=				= or	= or	=

Duals to uniform polyhedra
V4³	V3.8²	V(3.4)²	V4.6²	V3⁴	V3.4³	V4.6.8	V3⁴.4	V3³	V3.6²	V3⁵

It is also one of the simplest examples of a hypersimplex, a polytope formed by certain intersections of a hypercube with a hyperplane.

The octahedron is topologically related as a part of sequence of regular polyhedra with Schläfli symbols {3,n}, continuing into the hyperbolic plane.

*n32 symmetry mutation of regular tilings: {3,n}
Spherical				Euclid.	Compact hyper.		Paraco.	Noncompact hyperbolic

3.3	3³	3⁴	3⁵	3⁶	3⁷	3⁸	3^∞	3¹²ⁱ	3⁹ⁱ	3⁶ⁱ	3³ⁱ

Tetratetrahedron

The regular octahedron can also be considered a rectified tetrahedron – and can be called a tetratetrahedron. This can be shown by a 2-color face model. With this coloring, the octahedron has tetrahedral symmetry.

Compare this truncation sequence between a tetrahedron and its dual:

Family of uniform tetrahedral polyhedra
Symmetry: [3,3], (*332)							[3,3]⁺, (332)


{3,3}	t{3,3}	r{3,3}	t{3,3}	{3,3}	rr{3,3}	tr{3,3}	sr{3,3}
Duals to uniform polyhedra

V3.3.3	V3.6.6	V3.3.3.3	V3.6.6	V3.3.3	V3.4.3.4	V4.6.6	V3.3.3.3.3

The above shapes may also be realized as slices orthogonal to the long diagonal of a tesseract. If this diagonal is oriented vertically with a height of 1, then the first five slices above occur at heights r, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, and s, where r is any number in the range 0 < r ≤ 1/4, and s is any number in the range 3/4 ≤ s < 1.

The octahedron as a tetratetrahedron exists in a sequence of symmetries of quasiregular polyhedra and tilings with vertex configurations (3.n)², progressing from tilings of the sphere to the Euclidean plane and into the hyperbolic plane. With orbifold notation symmetry of *n32 all of these tilings are Wythoff constructions within a fundamental domain of symmetry, with generator points at the right angle corner of the domain.^[6]^[7]

*n32 orbifold symmetries of quasiregular tilings: (3.n)²
Construction	Spherical			Euclidean	Hyperbolic
Construction	*332	*432	*532	*632	*732	*832...	*∞32
Quasiregular figures
Vertex	(3.3)²	(3.4)²	(3.5)²	(3.6)²	(3.7)²	(3.8)²	(3.∞)²

Trigonal antiprism

As a trigonal antiprism, the octahedron is related to the hexagonal dihedral symmetry family.

Uniform hexagonal dihedral spherical polyhedra
Symmetry: [6,2], (*622)							[6,2]⁺, (622)	[6,2⁺], (2*3)


{6,2}	t{6,2}	r{6,2}	t{2,6}	{2,6}	rr{6,2}	tr{6,2}	sr{6,2}	s{2,6}
Duals to uniforms

V6²	V12²	V6²	V4.4.6	V2⁶	V4.4.6	V4.4.12	V3.3.3.6	V3.3.3.3

Family of uniform antiprisms n.3.3.3
Polyhedron
Tiling
Config.	V2.3.3.3	3.3.3.3	4.3.3.3	5.3.3.3	6.3.3.3	7.3.3.3	8.3.3.3	9.3.3.3	10.3.3.3	11.3.3.3	12.3.3.3	...∞.3.3.3

Square bipyramid

Family of bipyramids
Config.	V2.4.4	V3.4.4	V4.4.4	V5.4.4	V6.4.4	V7.4.4	V8.4.4	V9.4.4	V10.4.4
Polyhedron
Coxeter
Tiling

References

↑ Finbow, Arthur S.; Hartnell, Bert L.; Nowakowski, Richard J.; Plummer, Michael D. (2010). "On well-covered triangulations. III". Discrete Applied Mathematics. 158 (8): 894–912. MR 2602814. doi:10.1016/j.dam.2009.08.002.
↑
↑ Counting polyhedra
↑ http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/symmetry/poly8f0.htm
↑ Klein, Douglas J. (2002). "Resistance-Distance Sum Rules" (PDF). Croatica Chemica Acta. 75 (2): 633–649. Retrieved 2006-09-30.
↑ Coxeter Regular Polytopes, Third edition, (1973), Dover edition, ISBN 0-486-61480-8 (Chapter V: The Kaleidoscope, Section: 5.7 Wythoff's construction)
↑ Two Dimensional symmetry Mutations by Daniel Huson

External links

"Octahedron". Encyclopædia Britannica. 19 (11th ed.). 1911.
Weisstein, Eric W. "Octahedron". MathWorld.

Klitzing, Richard. "3D convex uniform polyhedra x3o4o - oct".
Editable printable net of an octahedron with interactive 3D view
Paper model of the octahedron
K.J.M. MacLean, A Geometric Analysis of the Five Platonic Solids and Other Semi-Regular Polyhedra
The Uniform Polyhedra
Virtual Reality Polyhedra The Encyclopedia of Polyhedra
- Conway Notation for Polyhedra Try: dP4

Polyhedra
Listed by number of faces
1–10 faces	Monohedron Dihedron Trihedron Tetrahedron Pentahedron Hexahedron Heptahedron Octahedron Enneahedron Decahedron
11–20 faces	Hendecahedron Dodecahedron Tridecahedron Tetradecahedron Pentadecahedron Hexadecahedron Heptadecahedron Octadecahedron Enneadecahedron Icosahedron
Others	Triacontahedron Hexecontahedron Enneacontahedron Skew apeirohedrons

Convex polyhedra

Platonic solids (regular)

Archimedean solids
(semiregular or uniform)

Catalan solids
(duals of Archimedean)

Dihedral regular

dihedron
hosohedron

Dihedral uniform

prisms antiprisms
duals:	bipyramids trapezohedra

Dihedral others

Degenerate polyhedra are in italics.

Johnson solids
Prismatoids and rotundae	square pyramid pentagonal pyramid triangular cupola square cupola pentagonal cupola pentagonal rotunda
Modified pyramids and dipyramids	elongated triangular pyramid elongated square pyramid elongated pentagonal pyramid gyroelongated square pyramid gyroelongated pentagonal pyramid triangular dipyramid square dipyramid pentagonal dipyramid elongated triangular dipyramid elongated square dipyramid elongated pentagonal dipyramid gyroelongated square dipyramid
Modified cupolae and rotundae	elongated triangular cupola elongated square cupola elongated pentagonal cupola elongated pentagonal rotunda gyroelongated triangular cupola gyroelongated square cupola gyroelongated pentagonal cupola gyroelongated pentagonal rotunda gyrobifastigium triangular orthobicupola square orthobicupola square gyrobicupola pentagonal orthobicupola pentagonal gyrobicupola pentagonal orthocupolarotunda pentagonal gyrocupolarotunda pentagonal orthobirotunda elongated triangular orthobicupola elongated triangular gyrobicupola elongated square gyrobicupola elongated pentagonal orthobicupola elongated pentagonal gyrobicupola elongated pentagonal orthocupolarotunda elongated pentagonal gyrocupolarotunda elongated pentagonal orthobirotunda elongated pentagonal gyrobirotunda gyroelongated triangular bicupola gyroelongated square bicupola gyroelongated pentagonal bicupola gyroelongated pentagonal cupolarotunda gyroelongated pentagonal birotunda
Augmented prisms	augmented triangular prism biaugmented triangular prism triaugmented triangular prism augmented pentagonal prism biaugmented pentagonal prism augmented hexagonal prism parabiaugmented hexagonal prism metabiaugmented hexagonal prism triaugmented hexagonal prism
Modified Platonic solids	augmented dodecahedron parabiaugmented dodecahedron metabiaugmented dodecahedron triaugmented dodecahedron metabidiminished icosahedron tridiminished icosahedron augmented tridiminished icosahedron
Modified Archimedean solids	augmented truncated tetrahedron augmented truncated cube biaugmented truncated cube augmented truncated dodecahedron parabiaugmented truncated dodecahedron metabiaugmented truncated dodecahedron triaugmented truncated dodecahedron gyrate rhombicosidodecahedron parabigyrate rhombicosidodecahedron metabigyrate rhombicosidodecahedron trigyrate rhombicosidodecahedron diminished rhombicosidodecahedron paragyrate diminished rhombicosidodecahedron metagyrate diminished rhombicosidodecahedron bigyrate diminished rhombicosidodecahedron parabidiminished rhombicosidodecahedron metabidiminished rhombicosidodecahedron gyrate bidiminished rhombicosidodecahedron tridiminished rhombicosidodecahedron
Miscellaneous	snub disphenoid snub square antiprism sphenocorona augmented sphenocorona sphenomegacorona hebesphenomegacorona disphenocingulum bilunabirotunda triangular hebesphenorotunda
(See also List of Johnson solids, a sortable table)

Fundamental convex regular and uniform polytopes in dimensions 2–10
Family	A_n	B_n	I₂(p) / D_n	E₆ / E₇ / E₈ / E₉ / E₁₀ / F₄ / G₂	H_n
Regular polygon	Triangle	Square	p-gon	Hexagon	Pentagon
Uniform polyhedron	Tetrahedron	Octahedron • Cube	Demicube		Dodecahedron • Icosahedron
Uniform 4-polytope	5-cell	16-cell • Tesseract	Demitesseract	24-cell	120-cell • 600-cell
Uniform 5-polytope	5-simplex	5-orthoplex • 5-cube	5-demicube
Uniform 6-polytope	6-simplex	6-orthoplex • 6-cube	6-demicube	1₂₂ • 2₂₁
Uniform 7-polytope	7-simplex	7-orthoplex • 7-cube	7-demicube	1₃₂ • 2₃₁ • 3₂₁
Uniform 8-polytope	8-simplex	8-orthoplex • 8-cube	8-demicube	1₄₂ • 2₄₁ • 4₂₁
Uniform 9-polytope	9-simplex	9-orthoplex • 9-cube	9-demicube
Uniform 10-polytope	10-simplex	10-orthoplex • 10-cube	10-demicube
Uniform n-polytope	n-simplex	n-orthoplex • n-cube	n-demicube	1_k2 • 2_k1 • k₂₁	n-pentagonal polytope
Topics: Polytope families • Regular polytope • List of regular polytopes and compounds

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