Facet (mathematics) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Simplicial complex

In mathematics, a simplicial complex is a topological space of a certain kind, constructed by "gluing together" points, line segments, triangles, and their n-dimensional counterparts...

is a maximal simplex.

In the general theory of polyhedra and polytope

Polytope

In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with flat sides, which exists in any general number of dimensions. A polygon is a polytope in two dimensions, a polyhedron in three dimensions, and so on in higher dimensions...

s, two conflicting meanings are currently jostling for acceptability:

A facet
Facetting
In geometry, facetting is the process of removing parts of a polygon, polyhedron or polytope, without creating any new vertices.Facetting is the reciprocal or dual process to stellation...

of a geometric polyhedron
Polyhedron
In elementary geometry a polyhedron is a geometric solid in three dimensions with flat faces and straight edges...

is traditionally any polygon whose corners are vertices of the polyhedron. By extension to higher dimensions, it is any j-tope (j-dimensional polytope
Polytope
In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with flat sides, which exists in any general number of dimensions. A polygon is a polytope in two dimensions, a polyhedron in three dimensions, and so on in higher dimensions...

) whose vertices are shared by some n-tope (n-dimensional polytope where 0facetting
Facetting
In geometry, facetting is the process of removing parts of a polygon, polyhedron or polytope, without creating any new vertices.Facetting is the reciprocal or dual process to stellation...

or faceting and is the reciprocal process to stellation
Stellation
Stellation is a process of constructing new polygons , new polyhedra in three dimensions, or, in general, new polytopes in n dimensions. The process consists of extending elements such as edges or face planes, usually in a symmetrical way, until they meet each other again...

.
A facet of an n-polytope
Polytope
In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with flat sides, which exists in any general number of dimensions. A polygon is a polytope in two dimensions, a polyhedron in three dimensions, and so on in higher dimensions...

is, more recently, an (n-1)-dimensional face or (n-1)-face. The informal term side can mean the same thing, edges of a polygon and faces of a polyhedron.
For example:
1. The facets of a polygon are edge
  Edge (geometry)
  In geometry, an edge is a one-dimensional line segment joining two adjacent zero-dimensional vertices in a polygon. Thus applied, an edge is a connector for a one-dimensional line segment and two zero-dimensional objects....
  
  s. (1-faces)
2. The facets of a polyhedron
  Polyhedron
  In elementary geometry a polyhedron is a geometric solid in three dimensions with flat faces and straight edges...
  
  or tiling
  Uniform tiling
  In geometry, a uniform tiling is a tessellation of the plane by regular polygon faces with the restriction of being vertex-uniform.Uniform tilings can exist in both the Euclidean plane and hyperbolic plane...
  
  are faces
  Face (geometry)
  In geometry, a face of a polyhedron is any of the polygons that make up its boundaries. For example, any of the squares that bound a cube is a face of the cube...
  
  . (2-faces)
3. The facets of a polychoron
  Polychoron
  In geometry, a polychoron or 4-polytope is a four-dimensional polytope. It is a connected and closed figure, composed of lower dimensional polytopal elements: vertices, edges, faces , and cells...
  
  (4-polytope) or honeycomb
  Convex uniform honeycomb
  In geometry, a convex uniform honeycomb is a uniform tessellation which fills three-dimensional Euclidean space with non-overlapping convex uniform polyhedral cells.Twenty-eight such honeycombs exist:* the familiar cubic honeycomb and 7 truncations thereof;...
  
  are cells
  Cell (geometry)
  In geometry, a cell is a three-dimensional element that is part of a higher-dimensional object.- In polytopes :A cell is a three-dimensional polyhedron element that is part of the boundary of a higher-dimensional polytope, such as a polychoron or honeycomb For example, a cubic honeycomb is made...
  
  . (3-faces)
4. The facets of a polyteron (5-polytope) or 4-honeycomb are hypercell
  Hypercell
  In geometry, a hypercell is a descriptive term for an element of a polytope or tessellation, usually representing an element one dimension higher than a cell. The most generally accepted term is 4-face because it contains a 4-dimensional interior...
  
  s. (4-faces)
Exactly two facets meet at any ridge
Ridge (geometry)
In geometry, a ridge is an -dimensional element of an n-dimensional polytope. It is also sometimes called a subfacet for having one lower dimension than a facet.By dimension, this corresponds to:*a vertex of a polygon;...

in a polytope. By extension, facet or j-facet is sometimes used to mean any j-dimensional element of a polytope.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.