UnfoldingtheTesseract

JournalofRecreationalMathematics,Vol.17(1),198485
PeterTurney

Introduction
In1966,MartinGardnerasked,Howmanydifferentorder8polycubescanbeproducedby
unfoldingahollowhypercubeinto3space?[1],statingalsothathedidnotknowtheanswer.
Thereare261distinctunfoldingsandinthisarticleIwillshowhowIarrivedatthatnumber.
Themethodgivenforenumeratingunfoldedtesseractscanbeextendedtoanynumberof
dimensions.I'llfirstdemonstratethemethodonthecube,andthenonthetesseract.

TheCube
Atreeisaconnectedgraphwithnnodesandn1edges.Figure1showsthesixsixnodetrees
[2].Wemayarrangethesixnodesofatreeintothreepairsandspecifythatthemembersofa
pairmaynotbeadjacent.Letuscallsuchatreeapairedtree.Thus,apairedtreeisatree
togetherwithaperfectmatchinginitscomplement.

Figure1.Thesixsixnodetrees.
Thereareelevendistinctpairingsofthesixnodetrees.Therearealsoelevenunfoldedcubes.
Thereisaonetoonemappingfromthesetofunfoldedcubestothesetofpairedsixnodetrees.
ThemappingisshowninFigure2.

Figure2.Mappingbetweenunfoldedcubesandpairedsixnodetrees.
Thereisasimpleprocedureforfindingtheuniquepairedtreethatanunfoldedcubemapsto.
1. Pairthesquaresofanunfoldedcubeifthesquaresbecomeoppositefacesonfolding.A
cubehasthreepairsofoppositefaces.
2. Replacethesquareswithpoints.
3. Connecttwopointsifthesquarestheyreplacedwereadjacent.
AnexampleisshowninFigure3.

Figure3.Procedureformappinganunfoldedcubetoapairedtree.
Thisprocedurewillalwaysproduceatreebecausethesixsquaresofanunfoldedcubewill
alwaysbeconnectedalongfivelines.Iftherewerefewerthanfiveconnections,thesixsquares
wouldnotallbejoinedintoaunit.Ifthereweremorethanfiveconnections,theunfoldedcube
couldnotlieonaplane.Forsimilarreasons,asixnodetreemusthavefiveedges.Ifasixnode
graphhaslessthanfiveedges,thesixnodeswillnotallbejoinedintoaunit.Ifasixnodegraph
hasmorethanfiveedges,therewillbeacycleinit.
Thisprocedurewillneverpairadjacentnodesinatreebecauseoppositefacesofacubeare
neveradjacent.Nounfoldingofacubecanmakeoppositesquaresadjacent
Finally,itisclearthatthisprocedurewillalwaysproduceauniquepairedtree.Anunfoldedcube
mapstoonlyonetreeanduniquelydescribesthepairingofthenodesofthetree.

Letusconsidertheinverseofthisprocedure.Theinverseprocedurefindstheuniqueunfolded
cubethatapairedsixnodetreemapsto.
Consideracube.Numberalltheverticesandcutthecubeapartintosixsquares.Youshould
havesomethinglikethatshowninFigure4.

Figure4.Sixsquareswithnumberedvertices.
Sincewecannotcutatesseractapart,letuslookforawaytocharacterizethisnumbering.The
simplestmethodisgraphic,asshowninFigure5.Wemayarrangethesenumberedsquaresinto
pairsofoppositesasshowninFigure6.

Figure5.Cuttingandnumberingaprojectedcube.

Figure6.Threepairsofopposingsquares.
Wenowgivetheprocedureforfindingtheuniqueunfoldedcubethatanypairedsixnodetree
mapsto.
1. Replaceeachnodeofthetreewithoneoftheabovenumberedsquares,theonly
restrictionbeingthatpairednodesmustbereplacedbypairedsquares.
2. Connecttwosquaresifthenodestheyreplacedwereadjacent,theonlyrestrictionbeing
thatsquaresmustbeconnectedsothattheirnumbersmatch.Notethatsomesquares
maybeupsidedown,anditispermittedtoturnthemover.
3. Now,removethenumbers.
AnexampleisshowninFigure7.

Figure7.Procedureformappingapairedtreetoanunfoldedcube.
Itwillalwaysbepossibletoconnectthesquaressothattheirnumbersmatch.Inspectionofthe
abovenumberedsquareswillshowthatanytwosquarescanbeconnected,solongastheyare
notbothmembersofthesamepair.Thus,thereisaonetoonemappingfromthesetofunfolded
cubestothesetofpairedsixnodetrees.Theproceduresgivenherecanbegeneralizedtoany
numberofdimensions.Nowletusconsidertheunfoldingofthetesseractinto3space.

TheTesseract
AtesseractprojectedontotwodimensionsisshowninFigure8.

Figure8.Atesseractprojectedontotwodimensions.
Ahollowtesseractismadeupofeightsolidcubes,justasahollowcubeismadeupofsixsolid

squares.Theeightcubesmaybeputintofourpairsofoppositecubes,justasthesixsquaresof
acubemaybeputintothreepairsofoppositesquares.
Thereisaonetoonemappingfromthesetofunfoldedtesseractstothesetofpairedeightnode
trees.AsexampleisshowninFigure9.

Figure9.Exampleofmappingbetweenunfoldedtesseractsandpairedeightnodetrees.
Therearetwentythreeeightnodetrees,asshowninFigure10[2].

Figure10.Thetwentythreeeightnodetrees.

The261pairingsoftheeightnodetreesareshowninFigures11.1through11.24.

Figure11.1.Pairingsofthe1steightnodetree.

Figure11.2.Pairingsofthe2ndeightnodetree.

Figure11.3.Pairingsofthe3rdeightnodetree.

Figure11.4.Pairingsofthe4theightnodetree.

Figure11.5.Pairingsofthe5theightnodetree.

Figure11.6.Pairingsofthe6theightnodetree.

Figure11.7.Pairingsofthe7theightnodetree.

Figure11.8.Pairingsofthe8theightnodetree.

Figure11.9.Pairingsofthe9theightnodetree.

Figure11.10.Pairingsofthe10theightnodetree.

Figure11.11.Pairingsofthe11theightnodetree.

Figure11.12.Pairingsofthe12theightnodetree.

Figure11.13.Pairingsofthe13theightnodetree.

Figure11.14.Pairingsofthe14theightnodetree.

Figure11.15.Pairingsofthe15theightnodetree.

Figure11.16.Pairingsofthe16theightnodetree.

Figure11.17.Pairingsofthe17theightnodetree.

Figure11.18.Pairingsofthe18theightnodetree.

Figure11.19.Pairingsofthe19theightnodetree.

Figure11.20.Pairingsofthe20theightnodetree.

Figure11.21.Pairingsofthe21steightnodetree.

Figure11.22.Pairingsofthe22ndeightnodetree.

Figure11.23.Pairingsofthe23rdeightnodetree.

Figure11.24.Numberofpairingsofalleightnodetrees.
AsfarasIknow,theonlywaytofindthenumberofdistinctpairingsatreecanhaveisto
exhaustivelyexaminethepossibilities.ThatiswhatIhavedonehere.
Notethattherearesomepairingsofatreewhichlookdistinct,butareactuallyidentical.Wemay
havetwoormoredifferentrepresentationsofthesamepairedtree.Considertheexampleshown
inFigure12.

Figure12.Tworepresentationsofthesamepairedtree.

Conclusion
Thereare261waysofpairingtheeightnodetrees.Thus,thereare261unfoldedtesseracts.
Thereare106tennodetrees[2].Ihavenotdeterminedhowmanywaystheycanbepaired.An
exhaustiveexaminationofthepossibilitieswillprobablyrequireasignificantamountofcomputer
time.
Figure13showsthetwofournodetreesandFigure14showstheonlywayofpairingthem.
Thus,thereisonlyonewayofunfoldingasquare(Figure15).

Figure13.Thetwofournodetrees.

Figure14.Theonlypairingofthefournodetrees.

Figure15.Theonlyunfoldingofasquare.
Thereisonlyonetwonodetree,whichcannotbepaired(Figure16).

Figure16.Theonlytwonodetree.
Thisgivesusaninfinitesequence:1,11,261,....AsfarasIknow,thisisanewsequence.

Acknowledgements
ThankstoMartinGardnerofScientificAmericanforposingtheproblem,NormanJohnsonof
WheatonCollegeforencouragement,D.G.CorneilandE.MendelsohnoftheUniversityof
Torontoforassistance,andtheUniversityofTorontoforcomputertime.

References
1. M.Gardner,MathematicalGames,ScientificAmerican,214:5,pp.138143,November
1966.
2. F.HararyandG.Prins,TheNumberofHomeomorphicallyIrreducibleTreesandOther
Species,ActaMathematica,101.pp.141162,1959.

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