Octahedron in Tetrahedron
The applet below illustrates the fact that a tetrahedron is a union of four smaller tetrahedra and one octahedron. This fact (observed by Matt Henderson) leads to a solution to the problem of comparing the volumes of a regular tetrahedron and a square pyramid, with all 14 edges of the two shapes equal.
Unlike the dual embedding of an octahedron into a cube, now the vertices of the octahedron are located at the midpoint of the edges of the tetrahedron, and the edges of the former are the midlines of the latter.
| What if applet does not run? |
Drag the mouse to rotate the cube. Use the right button to remove and put back individual faces.
(Acknowledgement: I have learned most of Java details from the implementation by Meiko Rachimow.)
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Copyright © 1996-2018 Alexander Bogomolny
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