Octahedron

Regular octahedron

(Click here for rotating model)

Type Platonic solid

F = 8, E = 12
Elements
V = 6 (χ = 2)

Faces by sides 8{3}

Conway O
notation aT

{3,4}
Schläfli
symbols r{3,3} or

Face
V4.4.4
configuration

Wythoff
4|23
symbol

Coxeter
diagram

Symmetry Oh, BC3, [4,3], (*432)

Rotation group O, [4,3]+, (432)

References U05, C17, W2

Properties regular, convexdeltahedron

Dihedral angle 109.47122° = arccos(− 13 )

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 (ℓ1) 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

and the radius of an inscribed sphere

(tangent to each of the octahedron's
faces) is

while the midradius, which touches the

middle of each edge, is
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
Face
Centered by Edge Vertex Face
Normal

Image

Projective
[2] [2] [4] [6]
symmetry

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

Area and volume

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

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
the formulas for the surface area and
volume expand to become

Additionally the inertia tensor of the

stretched octahedron is

These reduce to the equations for the

regular octahedron when
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 Oh, of
order 48, the three dimensional
hyperoctahedral group. This group's
subgroups include D3d (order 12), the
symmetry group of a triangular antiprism;
D4h (order 16), the symmetry group of a
square bipyramid; and Td (order 24), the
symmetry group of a rectified tetrahedron.
These symmetries can be emphasized by
different colorings of the faces.
 Rectified
Triangular Square Rhombic
Name Octahedron tetrahedron
antiprism bipyramid fusil
(Tetratetrahedron)

Image
(Face
coloring) (1111)
(1111) (1212) (1112)
(1111)

Coxeter
=
diagram

Schläfli s{2,6} ft{2,4} ftr{2,2}

{3,4} r{3,3}
symbol sr{2,3} { } + {4} {}+{}+{}

Wythoff 2|62
4|32 2|43
symbol |232

Oh, [4,3], D3d, [2+,6], (2*3) D4h, [2,4], D2h, [2,2],

Symmetry Td, [3,3], (*332)
(*432) D3, [2,3]+, (322) (*422) (*222)

12
Order 48 24 16 8
6

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
5 ohm.[5]
vertices 12
 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

[4,3]+ [1+,4,3] = [3,3] [3+,4]

Symmetry: [4,3], (*432)
(432) (*332) (3*2)

{4,3} t{4,3} r{4,3} t{3,4} {3,4} rr{4,3} tr{4,3} sr{4,3} h{4,3} h2{4,3} s{3,4}
r{31,1} t{31,1} {31,1} s2{3,4} {3,3} t{3,3} s{31,1}

= = =
= = = 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}

Compact
Spherical Euclid. Paraco. Noncompact hyperbolic
hyper.

                       

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, 38 , 12 , 58 ,
and s, where r is any number in the range
0 < r ≤ 14 , and s is any number in the range 34
≤ 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

  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.

Square bipyramid
Family of bipyramids
           
   
Polyhedron

Coxeter          

                 
Tiling

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

See also
Octahedral number
Centered octahedral number
Spinning octahedron
Stella octangula
 Triakis octahedron
Hexakis octahedron
Truncated octahedron
Octahedral molecular geometry
Octahedral symmetry
Octahedral graph

References
1. 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. doi:10.1016/j.dam.2009.08.002 .
MR 2602814 .
2. [1]
3. Counting polyhedra
4.
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/symmetry/pol
y8f0.htm
5. Klein, Douglas J. (2002). "Resistance-
Distance Sum Rules" (PDF). Croatica
Chemica Acta. 75 (2): 633–649. Retrieved
2006-09-30.
6. Coxeter Regular Polytopes, Third edition,
(1973), Dover edition, ISBN 0-486-61480-8
(Chapter V: The Kaleidoscope, Section: 5.7
Wythoff's construction)
7. 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
v t e Fundamental convex regular and uniform polytopes in
dimensions 2–10
E6 / E7 / E8 / F4 /
An Bn I2(p) / Dn Hn
G2

Triangle Square p-gon Hexagon Pentagon

Dodecahedron •
Tetrahedron Octahedron • Cube Demicube
Icosahedron

5-cell 16-cell • Tesseract Demitesseract 24-cell 120-cell • 600-cell

5-simplex 5-orthoplex • 5-cube 5-demicube

6-simplex 6-orthoplex • 6-cube 6-demicube 122 • 221

7-simplex 7-orthoplex • 7-cube 7-demicube 132 • 231 • 321

8-simplex 8-orthoplex • 8-cube 8-demicube 142 • 241 • 421

9-simplex 9-orthoplex • 9-cube 9-demicube

10-orthoplex • 10-
10-simplex 10-demicube
cube

n-simplex n-orthoplex • n-cube n-demicube 1k2 • 2k1 • k21 n-pentagonal polytope

Topics: Polytope families • Regular polytope • List of regular polytopes and compounds

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