Schlfli Symbol

A symbol of the form counterparts.

used to describe regular polygons, polyhedra, and their higher-dimensional

The symbol

denotes a regular polygon for integer -gons, with

, or a star polygon for rational

. The symbol

denotes

a tessellation of regular

of them surrounding each polytope vertex. The Schlfli symbol can also be

used to describe Platonic solids and Kepler-Poinsot solids, and a generalized version describes quasiregular polyhedra and Archimedean solids. Higher dimensional symbols can be used to describe the regular polychora and polytopes.

The symbol has the particularly nice property that its reversal gives the symbol of the dual polyhedron. The following tables gives Schlfli symbols for several polytopes.

polyhedron great stellated dodecahedron small stellated dodecahedron great icosahedron tetrahedron pentatope -simplex 16-cell

symbol

-cross polytope

600-cell octahedron

24-cell icosahedron cube tesseract

-hypercube

great dodecahedron dodecahedron 120-cell

The Schlfli symbol of a regular polygon with n edges is {n}. For example, a regular pentagon is represented by {5}. See the convex regular polygon and nonconvex star polygon. For example, {5/2} is the pentagram. The Schlfli symbol of a regular polyhedron is {p,q} if its faces are p-gons, and each vertex is surrounded by q faces (the vertex figure is a q-gon). For example {5,3} is the regular dodecahedron. It has pentagonal faces, and 3 pentagons around each vertex. See the 5 convex Platonic solids, the 4 nonconvex Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra. Schlfli symbols may also be defined for regular tessellations of Euclidean or hyperbolic space in a similar way. For example, the Hexagonal tiling is represented by {6,3}. For polyhedra, one extended Schlfli symbol is used in the 1954 paper by Coxeter enumerating the paper tiled uniform polyhedra. Every regular polyhedron or tiling {p,q} has 7 forms, including the regular form and its dual, corresponding to positions within the fundamental right triangle. An 8th special form, the snubs, correspond to an alternation of the omnitruncated form.

For instance, t{3,3} simply means truncated tetrahedron. A second, more general notation, also used by Coxeter applies to all dimensions, and are specified by a t followed by a list of indices corresponding to Wythoff construction mirrors. (They also correspond to ringed nodes in a Coxeter-Dynkin diagram.) For example, the truncated hexahedron can be represented by t0,1{4,3} and it can be seen as midway between the cube, t0{4,3}, and the cuboctahedron, t1{4,3}. In each a Wythoff construction operational name is given first. Second some have alternate terminology (given in parentheses) apply only for a given dimension. Specifically omnitruncation and expansion, as well as dual relations apply differently in each dimension.

Operation

Extended Schlfli Symbols

CoxeterWythoff Dynkin symbol Diagram

Parent

t0{p,q}

q|2p

Rectified (Quasiregular)

t1{p,q}

2|pq

Birectified (or dual)

t2{p,q}

p|2q

Truncated

t0,1{p,q}

2q|p

Bitruncated (or truncated dual)

t1,2{p,q}

2p|q

Cantellated (or expanded)

t0,2{p,q}

pq|2

Cantitruncated (or omnitruncated)

t0,1,2{p,q}

2pq|

Snub

s{p,q}

|2pq

In geometry, a regular star polygon is a self-intersecting, equilateral equiangular polygon, created by connecting one vertex of a simple, regular, p-sided polygon to another, non-adjacent vertex and continuing the process until the original vertex is reached again.[2] Alternatively for integers p and q, it can be considered as being constructed by connecting every qth point out of p points regularly spaced in a circular placement.[3] For instance, in a regular pentagon, a five-pointed star can be obtained by drawing a line from the first to the third vertex, from the third vertex to the fifth vertex, from the fifth vertex to the second vertex, from the second vertex to the fourth vertex, and from the fourth vertex to the first vertex.

Examples

{5/2}

{7/2}

{7/3}

{8/3}

{9/2}

{9/4}

{10/3}