Face (geometry) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

10/13/13 1:21 PM

Face (geometry)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the geometry of polyhedra and higher dimensional polytopes, the word face is used with two related but inconsistent meanings: a face may either refer to a two-dimensional element of a polyhedron, or an element of any dimension of a more general polytope (in any number of dimensions).[1]

Contents
1 k-face 2 Polygonal face or 2-face 3 Cell or 3-face 4 Facet or (n-1)-face 5 Ridge or (n-2)-face 6 Peak or (n-3)-face 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

k-face
In higher-dimensional geometry the faces of a polytope are features of all dimensions.[1][2][3] A face of dimension k is called a k-face. In set theory, the set of faces of a polytope includes the polytope itself and the empty set where the empty set is for consistency given a "dimension" of 1. For any n-polytope (ndimensional polytope), 1 k n. For example, with this meaning, the faces of a cube include the empty set, its vertices (0-faces), edges (1faces) and squares (2-faces), and the cube itself (3-face). All of the following are the faces of a 4-dimensional polytope: 4-face the 4-dimensional 4-polytope itself 3-faces 3-dimensional cells (polyhedral faces) 2-faces 2-dimensional faces (polygonal faces) 1-faces 1-dimensional edges 0-faces 0-dimensional vertices the empty set, which has dimension 1 In some areas of mathematics, such as polyhedral combinatorics, a polytope is by definition convex. Formally, a face of a polytope P is the intersection of P with any closed halfspace whose boundary is disjoint from the interior of P.[4] From this definition it follows that the set of faces of a polytope includes the polytope itself and the empty set.[2][3] In other areas of mathematics, such as the theories of abstract polytopes and star polytopes, the requirement for convexity is relaxed. Abstract theory still requires that the set of faces include the polytope itself and the
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empty set.

Polygonal face or 2-face

In three-dimensional geometry a face usually means a two-dimensional polygon (2-face) on the boundary of a polyhedron.[1][5] Other names for a polygonal face include side for a polyhedron, and tile in a Euclidean plane tessellation. For example, any of the six squares that bound a cube is a face of the cube. Sometimes the same word is also used to refer to the 2-dimensional features of 4-polytopes. With this meaning, the 4-dimensional tesseract has 24 square faces, each sharing two of 8 cubic cells. {4,3} {4,4} {4,5} {4,3,3}

The cube has 3 The square tiling in square faces the Euclidean plane per vertex has 4 square faces per vertex

The order-5 square tiling has 5 square faces per vertex in the hyperbolic plane as seen in this Poincar disk model projection.

The tesseract has 3 square faces per edge

Other types of nonface polygons associated with polyhedra and tessellations include Petrie polygons, vertex figures and facets (flat polygons formed by the polyhedron edges and vertices that are not faces of the polyhedron).

Cell or 3-face
A cell is a polyhedral element (3-face) of a 4 dimensional polytope or 3 dimensional tessellation, or higher. Cells are facets for 4-polytopes and 3-honeycombs. Examples:

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Regular 4-polytopes {4,3,3} {5,3,3}

Regular 3-honeycombs {4,3,4} {5,3,4}

The tesseract has 8 cubic cells in 4-dimensions, with 3 cells per edge, seen in this Schlegel diagram projection, with the 8th cell projected as the exterior.

The 120-cell has 120 dodecahedron cells in 4dimensions, with 3 cells per edge.

The cubic honeycomb fills Euclidean 3-space with cubes, with 4 cells per edge.

The order-4 dodecahedral honeycomb fills 3dimensional hyperbolic space with dodecahedra, 4 cells per edge, seen here in projection with the Beltrami-Klein model

Facet or (n-1)-face
In higher-dimensional geometry, the facets of a n-polytope are the (n-1)-faces of dimension one less than the polytope itself.[6] For example: The facets of a line segment are its 0-faces or vertices. The facets of a polygon are its 1-faces or edges. The facets of a polyhedron or plane tiling are its 2-faces. The facets of a 4-polytope or 3-honeycomb are its 3-faces. The facets of a 5-polytope or 4-honeycomb are its 4-faces.

Ridge or (n-2)-face
In related terminology, a (n 2)-face of an n-polytope is called a ridge.[7]

Peak or (n-3)-face
A (n 3)-face of an n-polytope is called a peak.

See also
Euler characteristic Face lattice

References
1. ^ a b c Matouek, Ji (2002), Lectures in Discrete Geometry (http://books.google.com/books? id=0N5RVe5lKQUC&pg=PA86), Graduate Texts in Mathematics 212, Springer, 5.3 Faces of a Convex Polytope, p. 86.
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2. ^ a b Grnbaum, Branko (2003), Convex Polytopes (http://books.google.com/books? id=ISHO86XJ1CsC&pg=PA17), Graduate Texts in Mathematics 221 (2nd ed.), Springer, p. 17. 3. ^ a b Ziegler, Gnter M. (1995), Lectures on Polytopes (http://books.google.com/books? id=xd25TXSSUcgC&pg=PA51), Graduate Texts in Mathematics 152, Springer, Definition 2.1, p. 51. 4. ^ Matouek (2002) and Ziegler (1995) use a slightly different but equivalent definition, which amounts to intersecting P with either a hyperplane disjoint from the interior of P or the whole space. 5. ^ Cromwell, Peter R. (1999), Polyhedra (http://books.google.com/books?id=OJowej1QWpoC&pg=PA13), Cambridge University Press, p. 13. 6. ^ Matouek (2002), p. 87; Grnbaum (2003), p. 27; Ziegler (1995), p. 17. 7. ^ Matouek (2002), p. 87; Ziegler (1995), p. 71.

External links
Olshevsky, George, Face (http://web.archive.org/web/20070204075028/members.aol.com/Polycell/glossary.html#Face) at Glossary for Hyperspace. Olshevsky, George, Cell (http://web.archive.org/web/20070204075028/members.aol.com/Polycell/glossary.html#Cell) at Glossary for Hyperspace. Olshevsky, George, Ridge (http://web.archive.org/web/20070204075028/members.aol.com/Polycell/glossary.html#Ridge) at Glossary for Hyperspace. Olshevsky, George, Peak (http://web.archive.org/web/20070204075028/members.aol.com/Polycell/glossary.html#Peak) at Glossary for Hyperspace. Weisstein, Eric W., "Face (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Face.html)", MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., "Facet (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Facet.html)", MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., "Side (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Side.html)", MathWorld. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Face_(geometry)&oldid=574366263" Categories: Elementary geometry Convex geometry Polyhedra This page was last modified on 24 September 2013 at 20:02. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

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