Everything about Johnson Solids totally explained
In
geometry, a
Johnson solid is a strictly
convex polyhedron, each face of which is a
regular polygon, which isn't a
Platonic solid,
Archimedean solid,
prism, or
antiprism. There is no requirement that each face must be the same polygon, or that the same polygons join around each vertex. An example of a Johnson solid is the square-based
pyramid with
equilateral sides (
J1); it has one square face and four triangular faces.
As in any strictly convex solid, at least three faces meet at every vertex, and the total of their angles is less than 360 degrees. Since a regular polygon has angles at least 60 degrees, it follows that at most five faces meet at any vertex. The
pentagonal pyramid (
J2) is an example that actually has a degree-5 vertex.
Although there's no obvious restriction that any given regular polygon can't be a face of a Johnson solid, it turns out that the faces of Johnson solids always have 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, or 10 sides.
In
1966,
Norman Johnson published a list which included all 92 solids, and gave them their names and numbers. He didn't prove that there were only 92, but he did conjecture that there were no others.
Victor Zalgaller in
1969 proved that Johnson's list was complete.
Of the Johnson solids, the
elongated square gyrobicupola (
J37) is unique in being vertex-uniform: there are four faces at each vertex, and their arrangement is always the same: three squares and one triangle.
Names
The names are listed below and are more descriptive than they sound. Most of the Johnson solids can be constructed from the first few (
pyramids,
cupolae, and
rotundae), together with the
Platonic and
Archimedean solids,
prisms, and
antiprisms.
- Bi- means that two copies of the solid in question are joined base-to-base. For cupolae and rotundae, they can be joined so that like faces (ortho-) or unlike faces (gyro-) meet. In this nomenclature, an octahedron would be a square bipyramid, a cuboctahedron would be a triangular gyrobicupola, and an icosidodecahedron would be a pentagonal gyrobirotunda.
- Elongated means that a prism has been joined to the base of the solid in question or between the bases of the solids in question. A rhombicuboctahedron would be an elongated square orthobicupola.
- Gyroelongated means that an antiprism has been joined to the base of the solid in question or between the bases of the solids in question. An icosahedron would be a gyroelongated pentagonal bipyramid.
- Augmented means that a pyramid or cupola has been joined to a face of the solid in question.
- Diminished means that a pyramid or cupola has been removed from the solid in question.
- Gyrate means that a cupola on the solid in question has been rotated so that different edges match up, as in the difference between ortho- and gyrobicupolae.
The last three operations — augmentation, diminution, and gyration — can be performed more than once on a large enough solid. We add
bi- to the name of the operation to indicate that it has been performed twice. (A
bigyrate solid has had two of its cupolae rotated.) We add
tri- to indicate that it has been performed three times. (A
tridiminished solid has had three of its pyramids or cupolae removed.)
Sometimes,
bi- alone isn't specific enough. We must distinguish between a solid that has had two parallel faces altered and one that has had two oblique faces altered. When the faces altered are parallel, we add
para- to the name of the operation. (A
parabiaugmented solid has had two parallel faces augmented.) When they're not, we add
meta- to the name of the operation. (A
metabiaugmented solid has had two oblique faces augmented.)
Enumeration
Pyramids
Cupolas
Rotunda
Modified pyramids and dipyramids
elongated pyramid
gyroelongated pyramid
bipyramid
elongated dipyramid
gyroelongated dipyramid
Modified cupolas and rotunda
elongated cupola
elongated rotunda
elongated birotunda
elongated cupolarotunda
elongated bicupola
gyroelongated cupola
gyroelongated rotunda
bicupola
cupolarotunda
gyroelongated bicupola
gyroelongated birotunda
gyroelongated cupolarotunda
Modified Platonic solids
Augmented dodecahedrons
Diminished icosahedrons
Modified Archimedean solids
augmented truncated tetrahedron
augmented truncated cube
augmented truncated dodecahedron
gyrate rhombicosadodecahedron
diminished rhombicosadodecahedron
gyrate diminished rhombicosadodecahedron
diminished rhombicosadodecahedron
gyrate diminished rhombicosadodecahedron
diminished rhombicosadodecahedron
Miscellaneous
Further Information
Get more info on 'Johnson Solids'.
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