Katzengold: Pyrite, Plato, and a Polynomial

Year: 2015 Authors: Stephan Klaus; Bianca Violet

Core claim

A single real algebraic formula can generate and smoothly interpolate between cube-like, octahedral, rhombic dodecahedral, and dodecahedral forms.

Topics

pyrite, Platonic solids, algebraic surfaces, real-time visualization

Domains

real algebraic geometry, polyhedra, golden ratio, dual polyhedra, mathematical visualization, scientific imagery, art and form, design inspiration

Methods

SURFER software, polynomial surface plotting, parameter interpolation, geometric dualization

Media

free software, short movie, photographs, 3D surface images

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.

Proceedings of Bridges 2015: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture

Katzengold: Pyrite, Plato, and a Polynomial

Stephan Klaus and Bianca Violet Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach and IMAGINARY open mathematics Schwarzwaldstrasse 9-11, Oberwolfach, Germany klaus@mfo.de, bianca.violet@imaginary.org

Abstract

What are the similarities of the mineral pyrite, the dodecahedron as the fifth Platonic solid, and a polynomial of degree 16? This paper explores this connection by using the free software SURFER of the IMAGINARY open mathematics platform, which leads to fascinating pictures displaying transformations from a cube to a dodecahedron, to a rhombic dodecahedron, and to an octahedron, using a single formula. A survey on the ideas and the mathematics behind these visualizations is given. In fact, everyone can explore and modify these forms in real time using the SURFER software. Moreover, the authors have created a short movie, demonstrating the simple geometric beauty.

Chemistry and Ancient Greek Scientists

Katzengold is the German name for fool’s gold, the common nickname the mineral pyrite has received because of its superficial and illusory resemblance to gold. Pyrite is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula ${\mathrm{FeS}}_2$ and is the most common one of the sulfide minerals [1]. It usually forms cuboid crystals (Figure 1.a), but it can also form dodecahedral crystals (Figure 1.b), which is a rare property among minerals. Note that the dodecahedral structure is composed of two different edge lengths and is therefore irregular. Crystals cannot be formed by absolutely regular dodecahedra [2].

(a) cuboid Figure 1: Crystals of pyrite [1]

(b) dodecahedral

We make a short digression into the five Platonic solids, which are the tetrahedron, the hexahedron (or cube), the octahedron, the dodecahedron, and the icosahedron (Figure 2). A Platonic solid is a convex polyhedron with congruent faces of regular polygons and the same number of faces meeting at each vertex. It is a mathematical truth that there are exactly five Platonic solids [3] and their Greek names refer to their number of faces (tetra = 4, hexa = 6, octa = 8, dodeca = 12, icosa = 20). Greek geometers and philosophers, in particular Plato, have studied their mathematical beauty and symmetry for thousands of years. Moreover, four of them are attributed to the four classical elements of alchemy: fire = tetrahedron, air = octahedron, water = icosahedron, and earth = cube. Aristotle added the aether as a fifth element, from which heavenly,

Klaus and Violet

Figure 2: The five Platonic Solids [4]

supernatural, and translucent things like the spirit and celestial spheres supporting the stars are formed. The symbol of this quintessence is the dodecahedron [4] which is the only Platonic solid formed by pentagons.

Algebraic Geometry

Now let us turn to algebraic geometry, more precisely to real algebraic geometry in 3 dimensions. Suppose we are given a single polynomial equation $p(x,y,z)=0$ in three variables $x,y$ , and $z$ , then a solution of this equation consists of specifying three values for the variables which can be interpreted as a point in 3-dimensional space specified by its coordinates [5]. Mathematical reasoning shows that, in general, the set of all solutions forms a curved surface, possibly with singularities like self-intersections or cusps. Thus an algebraic equation $p(x,y,z)=0$ produces a surface as a geometric object, i.e., a formula creates a form [6]. Very often it is possible to create astonishing and aesthetic surfaces by relatively simple equations [7], and there are deep connections between formulas and forms, which are only partially understood by modern mathematical research.

Here we should emphasize that it is possible to visualize the algebraic surface of a given polynomial equation in real time using the free software SURFER [8] of the IMAGINARY open mathematics platform [9]. This software is quickly installed and can be used very easily also by non-mathematicians [5]; it was developed for the general public during the German year of mathematics in 2008. Let us start with the cube, which can be approximated by the simple equation $x^{16}+y^{16}+z^{16}=1$ . Note that this is a 3-dimensional generalization of the Lamé curve [10] which was also used in the work of Piet Hein, the famous Danish scientist, artist and designer. Figure 3 shows a picture generated by the authors using the SURFER software:

Figure 3: Approximation of a cube

Katzengold: Pyrite, Plato, and a Polynomial

(a) $n=2$

(b) $n=4$ Figure 4: Graph of $x\mapsto x^{2n}$ and algebraic surface $x^{2n}+y^{2n}+z^{2n}=1$

(c) $n=8$

In fact, any even number $2n$ instead of 16 (starting with $n=2$ ) for the exponent is also a valid choice. The higher the exponent, the more similar the algebraic surface will be to the cube. This can be seen by looking at the graph of the function $x\mapsto x^{2n}$ , which looks more angled for larger $n$ (Figure 4). Note that the exponent 2 (i.e., $n=1$ ) would give a round sphere because of the 3-dimensional Pythagorean theorem.

Next we wish to construct an algebraic surface which approximates a dodecahedron. To this end we start with the three golden rectangles. Their 12 vertices are given by the coordinates $(\pm 1,\pm \varphi ,0)$ , $(0,\pm 1,\pm \varphi )$ , and $(\pm \varphi ,0,\pm 1)$ , where $\varphi :=\Phi -1={\Phi }^{-1}$ , and $\Phi$ is the golden ratio [11], therefore $\varphi \approx 0.62$ . It is well known and can be checked by basic calculations that these 12 vertices span an icosahedron [12]. The dodecahedron and the icosahedron form a dual pair, faces and vertices are interchanged [3]. So we dualize the described construction and take the coordinates of the vertices as the coefficients of the simple equation $ax+by+cz=d$ , where $a,b,c$ can be $0,\pm 1$ , or $\pm \varphi$ . Such an equation describes a plane that is orthogonal to the corresponding vertex vector $(a,b,c)$ , and an antipodal pair of vertices $\pm (a,b,c)$ yields two parallel planes. If $(a,b,c)$ is a unit vector, $d$ measures the distance of the plane to the origin. We finally get 6 planes parallel to the 12 faces of a dodecahedron (each face is parallel to its opposite). By taking the sum of 6 such equations, and each to the power of $2n$ , where $n=8$ , we get:

For $a=0$ and $b=0$ it is again the equation of the cube. And for different values of the coefficients $a$ and $b$ we obtain smooth surfaces of the shape of an octahedron (Figure 5.a), a rhombic dodecahedron (Figure 5.b), and a dodecahedron (Figure 6).

(a) $a=1,b=1$ Figure 5: Octahedron and rhombic dodecahedron

(b) $a=1,b=0$

In fact, we can interpolate between different shapes in real time by using variable coefficients within the SURFER software. The authors have also created a short movie on these form transformations [13], which has been submitted to the Bridges conference 2015.

Acknowledgments. The authors would like to thank Gert-Martin Greuel, founder of the IMAGINARY project, for his vision, dedication, and contagious enthusiasm in raising public awareness for the beauty of mathematics.

Klaus and Violet

Figure 6: $a=0.62$ and $b=0$ yields the dodecahedron

List of Photographs

1.a Pyrite from Ampliación a Victoria Mine, Navajún, La Rioja, Spain.

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pyrite_from_Ampliación_a_Victoria_Mine,_Navajún,_La_Rioja,_Spain_2.jpg

$⟨\hat{\mathbb{C}}⟩$ JJ Harrison / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0.

1.b Pyrite from the ancient iron mines at Rio Marina, Elba Island, Italy.

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pyrite-250186.jpg

$⟨\hat{\mathbb{C}}⟩$ Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0.

2 Platonic solids as objects of art by Ekkehard Neumann at Steinfurter Bagno, Burgsteinfurt, Germany.

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Platonische_Koerper_im_Bagno.jpg

$⟨\hat{\mathbb{C}}⟩$ Public domain.

References

[1] “Pyrite”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrite (as of 03.14.15) [2] Greuel, G.-M., “Crystals and Mathematics”, In: A Focus on Crystallography, FIZ Karlsruhe 2014. [3] “Platonic solid”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid (as of 03.14.15) [4] “Platonischer Körper”, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonischer_K%C3%B6rper (as of 03.14.15) [5] Greuel, G.-M., “Visualization of algebraic surfaces”, http://imaginary.org/sites/default/files/surfer2012-manual-a1-indesign_2014_0.pdf (as of 03.14.15) [6] Hauser, H., “Die Auflösung von Singularitäten”, http://imaginary.org/sites/default/files/imaginary-herwig-hauser.pdf (as of 03.14.15) [7] Hartkopf, A. and Matt, A. D., “The art of an algebraic surface”, http://imaginary.org/sites/default/files/vismath-book-art-hartkopf-matt.pdf (as of 03.14.15) [8] “SURFER”, software, http://imaginary.org/program/surfer (as of 03.14.15) [9] “IMAGINARY - open mathematics”, http://imaginary.org/ (as of 03.14.15) [10] Gridgeman, N. T., “Lamé Ovals”, In: Math. Gaz. 54, 31-37, 1979. [11] “The golden ratio”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio (as of 03.14.15) [12] “The regular icosahedron”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_icosahedron (as of 03.14.15) [13] Klaus, S. and Violet, B., “Katzengold”, short movie, to appear on the IMAGINARY platform.