5/29/2014 Polytope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytope 1/4
Polytope
A 2-dimensional polytope.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with polytrope.
In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with flat sides, which exists in any
general number of dimensions. A polygon is a polytope in two dimensions, a polyhedron in three
dimensions, and so on in higher dimensions (such as a polychoron in four dimensions). Some
theories further generalize the idea to include such objects as unbounded polytopes
(apeirotopes andtessellations), and abstract polytopes.
When referring to an n-dimensional generalization, the term n-polytope is used. For example, a
polygon is a 2-polytope, a polyhedron is a 3-polytope, and a polychoron is a 4-polytope.
The term was coined by the mathematician Hoppe, writing in German, and was later introduced to
English mathematicians by Alicia Boole Stott, the daughter of logician George Boole.
[1]
Early work
on polytopes was done by Ludwig Schlfli andThorold Gosset.
Contents [hide]
1 Different approaches to definition
2 Elements
3 Special classes of polytope
3.1 Regular polytopes
3.2 Convex polytopes
3.3 Star polytopes
3.4 Abstract polytopes
3.5 Self-dual polytopes
4 History
5 Uses
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Different approaches to definition [edit]
The term polytope is a broad term that covers a wide class of objects, and different definitions are attested in mathematical literature.
Many of these definitions are not equivalent, resulting in different sets of objects being called polytopes. They represent different
approaches of generalizing the convex polytopes to include other objects with similar properties and aesthetic beauty.
The original approach broadly followed by Ludwig Schlfli, Thorold Gosset and others begins with the 0-dimensional point as a 0-polytope
(vertex). A 1-dimensional 1-polytope (edge) is constructed by bounding a line segment with two 0-polytopes. Then 2-polytopes (polygons)
are defined as plane objects whose bounding facets (edges) are 1-polytopes, 3-polytopes (polyhedra) are defined as solids whose facets
(faces) are 2-polytopes, and so forth.
A polytope may also be regarded as a tessellation of some given manifold. Convex polytopes are equivalent to tilings of the sphere, while
others may be tilings of other elliptic, flat or toroidal surfaces see elliptic tiling and toroidal polyhedron. Under this definition, plane
tilings and space tilings (honeycombs) are considered to be polytopes, and are sometimes classed as apeirotopes because they have
infinitely many cells; tilings of hyperbolic spaces are also included under this definition.
An alternative approach defines a polytope as a set of points that admits asimplicial decomposition. In this definition, a polytope is the
union of finitely manysimplices, with the additional property that, for any two simplices that have a nonempty intersection, their intersection
is a vertex, edge, or higher dimensional face of the two. However this definition does not allow star polytopes with interior structures, and
so is restricted to certain areas of mathematics.
The theory of abstract polytopes attempts to detach polytopes from the space containing them, considering their purely combinatorial
properties. This allows the definition of the term to be extended to include objects for which it is difficult to define clearly a natural
underlying space, such as the 11-cell.
Some authors use polytope and polyhedron in a different sense, as follows: apolyhedron is the generic object in any dimension (which is
referred to as polytopeon this Wikipedia article) and polytope means a bounded polyhedron.
[2]
This terminology is typically used for
polytopes and polyhedra that are convex. With this terminology, a convex polyhedron is the intersection of a finite number ofhalfspaces (it
is defined by its sides) while a convex polytope is the convex hull of a finite number of points (it is defined by its vertices).
Elements [edit]
The elements of a polytope are its vertices, edges, faces, cells and so on. The terminology for these is not entirely consistent across
different authors. To give just a few examples: Some authors use face to refer to an (n 1)-dimensional element while others use face to
denote a 2-face specifically, and others use j-face or k-face to indicate an element of j or k dimensions. Some sources use edge to refer
to a ridge, while H. S. M. Coxeter uses cell to denote an (n 1)-dimensional element.
An n-dimensional polytope is bounded by a number of (n 1)-dimensional facets. These facets are themselves polytopes, whose facets
are (n 2)-dimensionalridges of the original polytope. Every ridge arises as the intersection of two facets (but the intersection of two
facets need not be a ridge). Ridges are once again polytopes whose facets give rise to (n 3)-dimensional boundaries of the original
polytope, and so on. These bounding sub-polytopes may be referred to as faces, or specifically j-dimensional faces or j-faces. A 0-
dimensional face is called avertex, and consists of a single point. A 1-dimensional face is called an edge, and consists of a line segment.
A 2-dimensional face consists of a polygon, and a 3-dimensional face, sometimes called a cell, consists of a polyhedron.
Article Talk
Read Edit View history
Search
Edit links
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Data item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
Languages

Catal
Deutsch

Espaol
Esperanto
Euskara

Franais
Gaeilge

Italiano
Magyar
Nederlands

Norsk bokml
Polski
Portugus

Simple English
Slovenina

Create account Log in

5/29/2014 Polytope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytope 2/4
The 5-cell (4-
simplex) is self-dual
with 5 vertices and 5
tetrahedral cells.
Dimension
of element
Element name
(in an n-polytope)
1 Null polytope (necessary in abstract theory)
0 Vertex
1 Edge
2 Face
3 Cell
4 Hypercell

j j-face element of rank j = 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ..., n

n 3 Peak (n 3)-face
n 2 Ridge or subfacet (n 2)-face
n 1 Facet (n 1)-face
n Body n-face
Special classes of polytope [edit]
Regular polytopes [edit]
Main article: Regular polytope
A polytope may be regular. The regular polytopes are a class of highly symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing polytopes, including
the Platonic solids, which have been studied extensively since ancient times.
Convex polytopes [edit]
Main article: Convex polytope
A polytope may be convex. The convex polytopes are the simplest kind of polytopes, and form the basis for different generalizations of the
concept of polytopes. A convex polytope is sometimes defined as the intersection of a set ofhalf-spaces. This definition allows a polytope
to be neither bounded nor finite. Polytopes are defined in this way, e.g., in linear programming. A polytope isbounded if there is a ball of
finite radius that contains it. A polytope is said to bepointed if it contains at least one vertex. Every bounded nonempty polytope is pointed.
An example of a non-pointed polytope is the set . A polytope is finite if it is defined in terms of a finite number
of objects, e.g., as an intersection of a finite number of half-planes.
Star polytopes [edit]
Main article: Star polytope
A non-convex polytope may be self-intersecting; this class of polytopes include thestar polytopes.
Abstract polytopes [edit]
Main article: Abstract polytope
An abstract polytope is a partially ordered set of elements or members, which obeys certain rules. It is a purely algebraic structure, and
the theory was developed in order to avoid some of the issues which make it difficult to reconcile the various geometric classes within a
consistent mathematical framework. A geometric polytope is said to be a realization of some associated abstract polytope.
Self-dual polytopes [edit]
In 2 dimensions, all regular polygons (regular 2-polytopes) are self-dual.
In 3 dimensions, the tetrahedron is self-dual, as well as canonical polygonal pyramids and elongated pyramids.
In higher dimensions, every regular n-simplex, with Schlafli symbol {3
n
}, is self-dual.
In addition, the 24-cell in 4 dimensions, with Schlafli symbol{3,4,3}, is self-dual.
History [edit]
Main articles: polygon and polyhedron
The concept of a polytope originally began with polygons and polyhedra, both of which have been known since
ancient times.
It was not until the 19th century that higher dimensions were discovered and geometers learned to construct analogues of polygons and
polyhedra in them. The first hint of higher dimensions seems to have come in 1827, with Mbius' discovery that two mirror-image solids
can be superimposed by rotating one of them through a fourth dimension. By the 1850s, a handful of other mathematicians such as
Cayley and Grassman had considered higher dimensions. Ludwig Schlfliwas the first of these to consider analogues of polygons and
polyhedra in such higher spaces. In 1852 he described the six convex regular 4-polytopes, but his work was not published until 1901, six
years after his death. By 1854, Bernhard Riemann's Habilitationsschrift had firmly established the geometry of higher dimensions, and
thus the concept of n-dimensional polytopes was made acceptable. Schlfli's polytopes were rediscovered many times in the following
decades, even during his lifetime.
In 1882 Hoppe, writing in German, coined the word polytop to refer to this more general concept of polygons and polyhedra. In due
course, Alicia Boole Stottintroduced polytope into the English language.
In 1895, Thorold Gosset not only rediscovered Schlfli's regular polytopes, but also investigated the ideas of semiregular polytopes and
space-filling tessellationsin higher dimensions. Polytopes were also studied in non-Euclidean spaces such as hyperbolic space.
During the early part of the 20th century, higher-dimensional spaces became fashionable, and together with the idea of higher polytopes,
inspired artists such as Picasso to create the movement known as cubism.
An important milestone was reached in 1948 with H. S. M. Coxeter's book Regular Polytopes, summarizing work to date and adding
5/29/2014 Polytope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytope 3/4
VTE
Look up polytope in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
findings of his own. Branko Grnbaum published his influential work on Convex Polytopes in 1967.
More recently, the concept of a polytope has been further generalized. In 1952 Shephard developed the idea of complex polytopes in
complex space, where each real dimension has an imaginary one associated with it. Coxeter went on to publish his book, Regular
Complex Polytopes, in 1974. Complex polytopes do not have closed surfaces in the usual way, and are better understood
as configurations. This kind of conceptual issue led to the more general idea of incidence complexes and the study of abstract
combinatorial properties relating vertices, edges, faces and so on. This in turn led to the theory of abstract polytopes as partially ordered
sets, or posets, of such elements. McMullen and Schulte published their bookAbstract Regular Polytopes in 2002.
Enumerating the uniform polytopes, convex and nonconvex, in four or more dimensions remains an outstanding problem.
In modern times, polytopes and related concepts have found many important applications in fields as diverse as computer
graphics, optimization, search engines, cosmology and numerous other fields.
Uses [edit]
In the study of optimization, linear programming studies the maxima and minima oflinear functions constricted to the boundary of an n-
dimensional polytope.
In linear programming, polytopes occur in the use of Generalized barycentric coordinates and Slack variables.
See also [edit]
List of regular polytopes
Convex polytope
Regular polytope
Semiregular polytope
Uniform polytope
Abstract polytope
Bounding volume-Discrete oriented polytope
Regular forms
1. Simplex
2. hypercube
3. Cross-polytope
Intersection of a polyhedron with a line
Extension of a polyhedron
Coxeter group
By dimension:
1. 2-polytope or polygon
2. 3-polytope or polyhedron
3. 4-polytope or polychoron
4. 5-polytope
5. 6-polytope
6. 7-polytope
7. 8-polytope
8. 9-polytope
9. 10-polytope
Polyform
Polytope de Montral
Schlfli symbol
Honeycomb (geometry)
Amplituhedron
References [edit]
1. ^ A. Boole Stott: Geometrical deduction of semiregular from regular polytopes and space fillings, Verhandelingen of the Koninklijke academy
van Wetenschappen width unit Amsterdam, Eerste Sectie 11,1, Amsterdam, 1910
2. ^ Nemhauser and Wolsey, "Integer and Combinatorial Optimization," 1999, ISBN 978-0471359432, Definition 2.2.
Coxeter, Harold Scott MacDonald (1973), Regular Polytopes, New York: Dover Publications, ISBN 978-0-486-61480-9.
Grnbaum, Branko (2003), Kaibel, Volker; Klee, Victor; Ziegler, Gnter M., eds., Convex polytopes (2nd ed.), New York &
London: Springer-Verlag,ISBN 0-387-00424-6.
Ziegler, Gnter M. (1995), Lectures on Polytopes, Graduate Texts in Mathematics 152, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag.
External links [edit]
Weisstein, Eric W., "Polytope" ,MathWorld.
"Math will rock your world" application of polytopes to a database of articles used to
support custom news feeds via the Internet (Business Week Online)
Regular and semi-regular convex polytopes a short historical overview:
Dimension
Dimensional spaces Vector spaceEuclidean spaceAffine spaceProjective spaceFree moduleManifoldAlgebraic varietySpacetime
5/29/2014 Polytope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytope 4/4
This page was last modif ied on 28 May 2014 at 02:58.
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-prof it organization.
[hide]
VTE
Other dimensions Degrees of freedomKrull dimensionHomological dimension (disambiguation)Lebesgue covering dimensionInductive dimensionHausdorff dimension
Polytopes and Shapes HyperplaneHypersurfaceHypercubeHypersphereHyperrectangleDemihypercubeCross-polytopeSimplex
Value of the dimension ZeroOneTwoThreeFourFiveSixSix degrees of freedomSevenEightn-dimensions
Category
Fundamental convex regular and uniform polytopes in dimensions 210
Family A
n
BC
n
I
2
(p) / D
n
E
6
/ E
7
/E
8
/ F
4
/G
2
H
n
Regular polygon Triangle Square p-gon Hexagon Pentagon
Uniform polyhedron Tetrahedron Octahedron Cube Demicube Dodecahedron Icosahedron
Uniform polychoron 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 1
22
2
21
Uniform 7-polytope 7-simplex 7-orthoplex 7-cube 7-demicube
1
32
2
31
3
21
Uniform 8-polytope 8-simplex 8-orthoplex 8-cube 8-demicube 1
42
2
41
4
21
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
k
21
n-pentagonal polytope
Topics: Polytope families Regular polytope List of regular polytopes
Categories: Polytopes Real algebraic geometry