Octagram Explained

In geometry, an octagram is an eight-angled star polygon.

The name octagram combine a Greek numeral prefix, octa-, with the Greek suffix -gram. The -gram suffix derives from γραμμή (grammḗ) meaning "line".[1]

Detail

In general, an octagram is any self-intersecting octagon (8-sided polygon).

The regular octagram is labeled by the Schläfli symbol, which means an 8-sided star, connected by every third point.

Variations

These variations have a lower dihedral, Dih4, symmetry:

The symbol Rub el Hizb is a Unicode glyph ۞ at U+06DE.

As a quasitruncated square

Deeper truncations of the square can produce isogonal (vertex-transitive) intermediate star polygon forms with equal spaced vertices and two edge lengths. A truncated square is an octagon, t=. A quasitruncated square, inverted as, is an octagram, t=.[2]

The uniform star polyhedron stellated truncated hexahedron, t'=t has octagram faces constructed from the cube in this way. It may be considered for this reason as a three-dimensional analogue of the octagram.

Another three-dimensional version of the octagram is the nonconvex great rhombicuboctahedron (quasirhombicuboctahedron), which can be thought of as a quasicantellated (quasiexpanded) cube, t0,2.

Star polygon compounds

There are two regular octagrammic star figures (compounds) of the form, the first constructed as two squares =2, and second as four degenerate digons, =4. There are other isogonal and isotoxal compounds including rectangular and rhombic forms.

or 2, like Coxeter diagrams +, can be seen as the 2D equivalent of the 3D compound of cube and octahedron, +, 4D compound of tesseract and 16-cell, + and 5D compound of 5-cube and 5-orthoplex; that is, the compound of a n-cube and cross-polytope in their respective dual positions.

Other presentations of an octagonal star

An octagonal star can be seen as a concave hexadecagon, with internal intersecting geometry erased. It can also be dissected by radial lines.

Notes and References

  1. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dgrammh%2F γραμμή
  2. The Lighter Side of Mathematics: Proceedings of the Eugène Strens Memorial Conference on Recreational Mathematics and its History, (1994), Metamorphoses of polygons, Branko Grünbaum
  3. News: Lawrence . Pete . Why do all the stars have 8 points in the James Webb images? An astronomer explains . 1 March 2023 . BBC Science Focus Magazine . 13 September 2022 . en.