Octahedral symmetry
A regular octahedron has 24 rotational (or orientation-preserving) symmetries, and a symmetry order of 48 including transformations that combine a reflection and a rotation. A cube has the same set of symmetries, since it is the dual of an octahedron. The group of orientation-preserving symmetries is S4, or the group of permutations of four objects, since there is exactly one such symmetry for each permutation of the four pairs of opposite sides of the octahedron.
Details
Chiral and full (or achiral) octahedral symmetry are the discrete point symmetries (or equivalently, symmetries on the sphere) with the largest symmetry groups compatible with translational symmetry. They are among the crystallographic point groups of the cubic crystal system.
Octahedral symmetry
Subgroups
O and T D4, D3 and D2 C4, C3 and C2 E
Conjugacy classes
identity 6 rotation by 90 8 rotation by 120 3 rotation by 180 about a 4-fold axis 6 rotation by 180 about a 2-fold axis
A dual cube-octahedron.
In the disdyakis dodecahedron one full face is a fundamental domain; other solids with the same symmetry can be obtained by adjusting the orientation of the faces, e.g. flattening selected subsets of faces to combine each subset into one face, or replacing each face by multiple faces, or a curved surface.
Octahedral symmetry
With the 4-fold axes as coordinate axes, a fundamental domain of Oh is given by 0 x y z. An object with this symmetry is characterized by the part of the object in the fundamental domain, for example the cube is given by z = 1, and the octahedron by x + y + z = 1 (or the corresponding inequalities, to get the solid instead of the surface). ax + by + cz = 1 gives a polyhedron with 48 faces, e.g. the disdyakis dodecahedron. Faces are 8-by-8 combined to larger faces for a = b = 0 (cube) and 6-by-6 for a = b = c (octahedron).
Subgroups
Oh O, Th, Td and T D4h and D2h D3d and D2d D4, D3 and D2 C4h, C3h and C2h C4v, C3v and C2v C4, C3 and C2 S6, S4 and S2=Ci E and Cs
Octahedral symmetry
Conjugacy classes
inversion 6 rotoreflection by 90 8 rotoreflection by 60 3 reflection in a plane perpendicular to a 4-fold axis 6 reflection in a plane perpendicular to a 2-fold axis
Octahedral symmetry if two adjacent faces have colors different from each other, and the other four have a third color, the cube has 2 isometries. if two opposite faces have the same color, and all other faces have different colors, the cube has 2 isometries, like an asymmetric piece of blank paper. C3v: if three faces, of which none opposite to each other, have one color and the other three one other color, the cube has 6 isometries. For some larger subgroups a cube with that group as symmetry group is not possible with just coloring whole faces. One has to draw some pattern on the faces. Examples: D2d: if one face has a line segment dividing the face into two equal rectangles, and the opposite has the same in perpendicular direction, the cube has 8 isometries; there is a symmetry plane and 2-fold rotational symmetry with an axis at an angle of 45 to that plane, and, as a result, there is also another symmetry plane perpendicular to the first, and another axis of 2-fold rotational symmetry perpendicular to the first. Th: if each face has a line segment dividing the face into two equal rectangles, such that the line segments of adjacent faces do not meet at the edge, the cube has 24 isometries: the even permutations of the body diagonals and the same combined with inversion (x is mapped to x). Td: if the cube consists of eight smaller cubes, four white and four black, put together alternatingly in all three standard directions, the cube has again 24 isometries: this time the even permutations of the body diagonals and the inverses of the other proper rotations. T: if each face has the same pattern with 2-fold rotational symmetry, say the letter S, such that at all edges a top of one S meets a side of the other S, the cube has 12 isometries: the even permutations of the body diagonals. The full symmetry of the cube (Oh) is preserved if and only if all faces have the same pattern such that the full symmetry of the square is preserved, with for the square a symmetry group of order 8. The full symmetry of the cube under proper rotations (O) is preserved if and only if all faces have the same pattern with 4-fold rotational symmetry.
Octahedral symmetry
Pentagonal icositetrahedron
Note to Pentagonal icositetrahedron: (Ccw) - note that, not very clear in the image, at some vertices 4 faces meet (in the edge of the image)
Archimedean solids
Name snub cube or snub cuboctahedron (2 chiral forms) (Video) picture 38 Faces 32 triangles 6 squares Edges 60 Vertices 24 Vertex configuration 3,3,3,3,4
(Video)
Catalan solids
Name pentagonal icositetrahedron picture Dual Archimedean solid snub cube Faces 24 Edges 60 Vertices 38 Face Polygon irregular pentagon
(Video)(Video)
Octahedral symmetry
Name
Picture
Faces
Edges
Vertices
cube (hexahedron)
12
(Animation) octahedron 8 12 6 3 4
(Animation)
Archimedean solids
(semi-regular: vertex-uniform)
Name cuboctahedron (quasi-regular: vertex- and edge-uniform) (Video) truncated cube or truncated hexahedron (Video) truncated octahedron 14 6 squares 8 hexagons 36 24 4,6,6 14 8 triangles 6 octagons 36 24 3,8,8 picture Faces 14 8 triangles 6 squares Edges 24 Vertices 12 Vertex configuration 3,4,3,4
(Video) rhombicuboctahedron or small rhombicuboctahedron (Video) truncated cuboctahedron or great rhombicuboctahedron (Video) 26 12 squares 8 hexagons 6 octagons 72 48 4,6,8 26 8 triangles 18 squares 48 24 3,4,4,4
Catalan solids
(semi-regular duals: face-uniform)
Octahedral symmetry
picture
Faces 12
Edges 24
Vertices 14
(Video) disdyakis dodecahedron or hexakis octahedron (Video) truncated cuboctahedron 48 72 26 scalene triangle
Other
stella octangula
License
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