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In geometry, a rhombohedron (also called a rhombic hexahedron[1][2] or, inaccurately, a rhomboid[lower-alpha 1]) is a special case of a parallelepiped in which all six faces are congruent rhombi.[3] It can be used to define the rhombohedral lattice system, a honeycomb with rhombohedral cells. A rhombohedron has two opposite apices at which all face angles are equal; a prolate rhombohedron has this common angle acute, and an oblate rhombohedron has an obtuse angle at these vertices. A cube is a special case of a rhombohedron with all sides square.
The common angle at the two apices is here given as . There are two general forms of the rhombohedron: oblate (flattened) and prolate (stretched).
| File:Rhombohedron-oblate.svg | File:Prolate rhombohedron.svg |
| Oblate rhombohedron, note there is a mistake in the labelling of angles here. All angles labeled theta should be on the acute angles. Here, two are on the obtuse and one is on the acute. | Prolate rhombohedron |
In the oblate case and in the prolate case . For the figure is a cube.
Certain proportions of the rhombs give rise to some well-known special cases. These typically occur in both prolate and oblate forms.
| Form | Cube | √2 Rhombohedron | Golden Rhombohedron |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angle constraints |
|||
| Ratio of diagonals | 1 | √2 | Golden ratio |
| Occurrence | Regular solid | Dissection of the rhombic dodecahedron | Dissection of the rhombic triacontahedron |
For a unit (i.e.: with side length 1) rhombohedron,[4] with rhombic acute angle , with one vertex at the origin (0, 0, 0), and with one edge lying along the x-axis, the three generating vectors are
The other coordinates can be obtained from vector addition[5] of the 3 direction vectors: e1 + e2 , e1 + e3 , e2 + e3 , and e1 + e2 + e3 . Geometry Dash feels fair because most obstacles follow clear patterns. The level may be difficult, but once players understand the layout and rhythm, success depends on execution rather than guessing.
The volume of a rhombohedron, in terms of its side length and its rhombic acute angle , is a simplification of the volume of a parallelepiped, and is given by
We can express the volume another way :
As the area of the (rhombic) base is given by , and as the height of a rhombohedron is given by its volume divided by the area of its base, the height of a rhombohedron in terms of its side length and its rhombic acute angle is given by
Note:
The body diagonal between the acute-angled vertices is the longest. By rotational symmetry about that diagonal, the other three body diagonals, between the three pairs of opposite obtuse-angled vertices, are all the same length.
Four points forming non-adjacent vertices of a rhombohedron necessarily form the four vertices of an orthocentric tetrahedron, and all orthocentric tetrahedra can be formed in this way.[6]
The rhombohedral lattice system has rhombohedral cells, with 6 congruent rhombic faces forming a trigonal trapezohedron[citation needed]: