Spidronised Space-fillers

Year: 2009 Authors: Walt van Ballegooijen; Paul Gailiunas; Dániel Erdély

Core claim

A similarity-transformation construction can spidronise many saddle-polyhedron faces, producing space-filling forms with controlled clockwise and counter-clockwise matchings.

Topics

space-filling polyhedra, spidrons, saddle polyhedra, chiral matching, periodic networks

Domains

polyhedra, geometric tilings, three-dimensional periodic networks, symmetry, similarity transformations, geometric sculpture, generative form, mathematical art

Methods

spidron nest construction, triangulation, similarity transformation, space-filling classification, case analysis

Media

computer images, rapid prototypes, Excel tables, colored pictures, animations

Paper text

The text below is the locally extracted OCR/Markdown version of the paper. Raw PDF files remain local and are not published here.

Bridges 2009: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture

Spidronised Space-fillers

Walt van Ballegooijen Parallelweg 18 4261 GA Wijk en Aalburg The Netherlands waltvanb@xs4all.nl

Paul Gailiunas 25 Hedley Terrace, Gosforth Newcastle, NE3 1DP England p-gailiunas@argonet.co.uk

Dániel Erdély 31. Batthyány 1015 Budapest Hungary edan@spidron.hu

Abstract

Saddle polyhedra have faces that are skew polygons, with edges that do not lie in one plane. The surface of a face can be undefined [1], a minimal surface [2], triangulated [3], or filled using a spidron nest [4,5]. Identifying circuits in three dimensional periodic networks of vertices and edges [6] with saddle faces generates space-filling saddle polyhedra, described in [2]. We consider these space-fillers, and by extending the concept of a spidron so it can be applied to the faces create forms that are visually interesting, both as individual polyhedra and in aggregations.

Spidrons and Spidron Nests

A spidron was originally defined as a particular infinite set of triangles that tiles the plane, and a spidron nest as a combination of semi-spidrons that form a hexagon [4]. This idea can be extended in a fairly natural way to work with any regular polygon with an even number of sides, but there are problems if the polygon is not regular (see later for more detailed discussion).

Throughout this paper a polygon is considered, as in [1], as a closed circuit of edges, meeting at vertices. In particular a polygon is considered to be distinct from its interior. A polyhedron is considered to be a surface distinct from its interior. Only two faces of a polyhedron meet at any edge, but they can share more than one edge.

Dániel Erdély discovered that the interior of a hexagon divided into an infinite series of similar rings, each consisting of six equilateral and six $120^{\circ }$ isosceles triangles (a spidron nest), can fold so that the hexagons become non-planar. By noticing that a cube can be dissected along a skew hexagon he was then able to construct a space-filling octahedron [7]. If the skew hexagons are simply triangulated then the polyhedron that is generated is the first stellation of the rhombic dodecahedron, which is a well-known space-filler [8]. If a minimal surface is used it corresponds to Pearce’s #40, figure 8.55 in [2], which is used in his space-filling #4, illustrated in his figure 8.68.

In fact spidron nests can be folded in many different ways, since each ring can turn either clockwise or counter-clockwise. Usually the choices are made in a consistent way so that the spidronised polygon appears as a many-armed spiral in relief. However the choices are made, in a space-filling, faces that coincide must correspond, so that a clockwise ring matches a counter-clockwise ring. This has important consequences.

In order to make spidronised versions of the faces of the saddle polyhedra used by Pearce we need to consider their edges, which are usually skew polygons. As long as the skew polygon is regular (equilateral and equiangular) it is not too difficult to construct a corresponding spidron nest. In fact, within certain limits, there are two degrees of freedom, which can be thought of as the angles of one of the triangles in the dissection.

Unfortunately it is more usual to need skew polygons that are not regular, even to make a single polyhedron before the constraints of space-filling are considered. There is an obvious construction that generates visually satisfying forms, but in general the spidron nests produced cannot fold.

Start with a polygon, which may be skew. Usually it will have some rotational symmetry, so there is an obvious centre, but it may be necessary to make some more or less arbitrary decision about which point to take as the centre. Make a copy of the polygon, scale it down by some factor towards the centre and rotate it by some angle. Triangulate the region between the two polygons by joining every point on the original (outer) polygon to the images of its two neighbouring vertices. Apply the similarity transformation (scale + rotation) to the resulting surface, which, by construction, will fit inside. The transformation can be repeated indefinitely to give a series of rings that converge towards the centre. The set of images of any point lies on a logarithmic spiral.

Constructing Space-filling Polyhedra

The faces of any polyhedron can be spidronised using this construction, and because the (arbitrary) rotation around the axis can be in either direction, there are clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW) versions of the nests. For a single polyhedron there is no restriction on how these versions are chosen, but in a space-filling, faces that meet must match. Looking from the outside of the polyhedra a CW face is matched by a CCW face. We want to choose these orientations so that the number of different spidronised polyhedra is minimised, if possible with a single spidronised form for every copy of a polyhedron in a space-filling. This is often quite difficult to achieve, and sometimes impossible.

Pearce [2] lists 42 space-filling systems using a total of 54 polyhedra with 34 different polygons as faces, but he acknowledges that this list is not exhaustive. Figure 1 shows all these faces, with the skew polygons spidronised. For each space-filling a translational unit can be identified that generates the complete space-filling by translations only. The translational unit consists of one or more basic repeat units, which are the smallest aggregations of spidronised polyhedra that fill space by themselves. Generally the numbers of polyhedra in the repeat unit are given in space-filling ratio listed in Pearce, but there are circumstances when twice as many are needed because of the requirement for equal numbers of CW and CCW versions of a face, for example in a space-filling that uses a single type of polyhedron with an odd number of faces.

The situation that can occur when (unspidronised) faces are enantiomorphic is rather less obvious. An enantiomorphic face is a three dimensional object, rather like a helix, so that right-hand, R, and left-hand, L, forms can be interchanged by reflection, but in no other way. The process of spidronisation is essentially two dimensional, and CW and CCW forms can be interchanged by a 180° flip. Since R faces must meet with R faces (and L with L) we can consider each type separately, so a polyhedron with an odd number of R faces behaves like a polyhedron with an odd number of identical faces, and the requirement for an equal number of CW and CCW versions implies an even number of different spidronised forms of the polyhedron.

Some space-filling polyhedra listed in Pearce have faces that are not enantiomorphic, having mirror symmetry, but they are two-sided, in the sense that their appearance is not conserved under a 180° flip. Such polygons can be spidronised in two ways, either with the “A” side CW, or the “B” side CW. Since in a space-filling the “A” side of a polygon must meet the “B” side of its mate, all that is needed is to use the same spidronisation throughout, and CW will always meet CCW.

All of the saddle polyhedral space-fillers in Pearce can be constructed applying these general principles, but they can have different consequences. Two examples illustrate the main points.

Spidronised Space-Fillers

Figure 1: Total set of 34 nests for spidronised space-filling polyhedra

Figure 2: Two sides and the chiral versions of the decagonal spidron-nest (n10a)

van Ballegooijen, Gailiunas and Erdély

Example 1 - The Decatrihedron (The Triamond Space-filling)

Pearce’s first space filler has three skew decagonal faces, hence his name of decatrihedron. The decagons are circuits in the triamond lattice [9], hence its classification as [10, 3]. Although the decagons are equiangular, with an included angle (G-angle) of $120^{\circ }$ , they are not regular, so the spidronised version is rather different from previously published examples (Figure 2).

The polyhedron faces come very close to each other so some care is needed in choosing the parameters (scale factor and rotation angle) to construct the spidron-nest so that intersections are avoided.

Since the polyhedron has an odd number of faces two different spidronised forms are needed, and the basic repeat unit consists of two polyhedra with four external faces (Figure 3). There are three ways to achieve this. The two external CW faces can be from the same polyhedron, or there can be one face from each. In the latter case moving between faces of the same type (CW or CCW) involves a screw rotation of $90^{\circ }$ along a helix that can be of either sense. Of course there is further variation if we consider the two possible alternatives for the internal faces. As Figure 2 indicates the decagon is chiral, so it has two enantiomorphic forms, either of which can be used to construct the polyhedra, so the final space-filling can be of two forms.

Figure 3: Joining two spidronised decatrihedra (one of the three possibilities). Middle faces omitted.

Example 2 - A More Complicated Example

One of the most complicated examples is Pearce’s #41, which has a basic repeat unit consisting of ten polyhedra. Finding the correct orientation for each spidron-nest is far from easy. In one sense the internal faces are easier since they could be oriented randomly and the basic repeat unit would still work, but they should be chosen so that each polyhedron appears as only one spidronised form. There are 16 such internal face to face meetings. The basic repeat unit has 60 outer faces, and there are seven different directions of translation to neighbouring repeat units.

Four of the nests are of the “mirror” type with “A” and “B” sides described above. This makes things slightly easier, since the unspidronised structure determines the orientations of the spidrons.

Figure 4: The spidron nests used in making Pearce’s space-filling #41.

Spidronised Space-Fillers

Figure 5: The spidronised polyhedra used in a basic repeat unit of #41, and the assembled unit

Figure 6: A piece of Pearce’s space-filling #41, coloured to show the basic repeat units

van Ballegooijen, Gailiunas and Erdély

Tables

The following tables summarise all 34 nests and 42 space-fillings described by Pearce, and provide details of spidronised versions. There are two errors in Pearce’s space filling ratios which have been corrected (marked with *).

Table 1: The 34 nests

Nest Code: an identifier based on the number of edges.

Used in polyhedra: referred to Pearce’s table 8.1, also used in Table 2.

Used in spacefillers: referred to Pearce’s table 8.2, also used in Table 2.

Polygon: taken from Pearce.

Group: there are 4 kinds of nests: flat, regular, mirror and enantiomorphic.

Symmetry: taken from Pearce.

G-angles: between adjacent edges (rounded to 1 decimal place).

Zome Code: Zometool [10] struts used to make a model. 2Y means two Yellows in the same line.

Spidronised Space-Fillers

Table 2: The Space-fillers

van Ballegooijen, Gailiunas and Erdély

Space-filler: an identifier, taken from Pearce table 8.2.

Polyhedra: as in Table 1.

Ratio: space-filling ratio as in Pearce.

Nests: classified by type.

Symmetry: minimal symmetry, where E is “smaller” or lower symmetry than M, so E < M < R < F.

Factor SF: multiplication needed to match nests.

Outer Nests: number of outer faces in the spidronised repeat unit.

Types: numbers of each kind of nest (in corresponding order). A + sign means there are chiral versions.

Factor Unit: multiplication needed to create a translational unit.

Further Work

The similarity transformation method has been used to construct the faces of almost all of the polyhedra considered. This is satisfactory so long as computer images, or models produced by rapid prototyping are adequate, but it would be more convenient, and cheaper, to be able to make the faces from single sheets of material. This means that the faces need to fold, and the behaviour of spidrons as foldable linkages, apart from the regular examples, is at present poorly understood. We do not even know very much about the way regular spidrons behave when folded in non-symmetric ways. Much remains to be discovered.

In order to make progress through a large number of examples we have proceeded by trying to find the smallest aggregation of spidronised polyhedra that will fill space on its own periodically. A different approach would be to start from particular spidronised forms of known space-filling polyhedra, and determine whether they will fill space, and how.

More detail about the 3D structure of edges and their projections will be shown on the a special CD that will be made available during Bridges 2009. It will also contain further Excel tables and coloured pictures and animations of all the spidronised space-fillings.

References

[1] Grünbaum B. Polyhedra with Hollow Faces, Proc. NATO-ASI Conference on Polytopes: Abstract, Convex and Computational, Toronto, 1993. pp. 43–70.

[2] Pearce, P. Structure in Nature is a Strategy for Design, The MIT Press, 1978.

[3] Gailiunas, P. Some unusual space-filling solids, The Mathematical Gazette, 88, 512, July 2004, pp. 230–241.

[4] Erdély, D. Some Surprising New Properties of the Spidrons, Renaissance Banff, Bridges Proceedings 2005, pp. 179–186.

[5] http://www.spidron.hu

[6] Wells, A.F. The Third Dimension in Chemistry, OUP, 1956.

[7] Erdély, D. Spidron System: A Flexible Space-Filling Structure, POLYHEDRA; Symmetry, Culture and Science, volume 11. Numbers 1–4, 2000, pp. 307–316, published in 2004, Symmetry Foundation.

[8] Holden, A. Shapes, space and symmetry, Dover, 1991, p.165.

[9] Conway, J.H., Burgiel, H., Goodman-Strauss, C. The Symmetries of Things, A.K. Peters, 2008, pp. 351–352.

[10] http://www.zometool.com

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