Simplex (EntityClass, 14)
From Hi.gher. Space
A simplex is an n-dimensional polytope with n+1 faces and n+1 vertices. Each simplex's element counts, treated as a list and including a single "-1D element" and a single element of its own dimension, read identical to a row of Pascal's triangle.
Simplices are special because they are always convex and are never self-intersecting. Any polytope can be defined as the union of a set of simplices of its own dimension, or as the space bounded by the union of a set of simplices of one dimension less. For these reasons, simplices are often used as "building blocks" in CGI.
Regular simplices are all also self-duals. The only other regular polytope to exhibit this behavior, bar 2D shapes, is the icositetrachoron in 4D.
Under the Tamfang naming scheme, simplices are denoted by the pyro- prefix, meaning the classical element of "fire".
Simplices |
triangle • tetrahedron • pyrochoron • pyroteron • pyropeton |