it's possible to make a regular tetrahedron with integer coordinates that all lie on the vertices of a cube.
InDoes this phenomenon occur in any other dimensional space?
Or specifically, for how many is it possible to construct a regular -dimensional simplex with integer co-ordinates that lie on an -dimensional hypercube in ?
Details and Assumptions :
A regular -dimensional simplex in has vertices that are all an equal distance apart. (It's like an -dimensional version of an equilateral triangle!)
Here is the Wikipedia article on hypercubes. (It's like an -dimensional version of a square!)
Note that the analogous phenomena is not possible in dimensions. That is, we cannot create an equilateral triangle with integer co-ordinates that all lie on a square. Check out why, here .
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Let a n cube have vertex coordinates in binary form for all k = 0 to 2 n − 1 , such as for example for a square, { ( 0 , 0 ) , ( 0 , 1 ) , ( 1 , 0 ) , ( 1 , 1 ) } . A square is a 2 -hypercube, where n = 2 .
Let H p be a square matrix such that
H 1 = ⎝ ⎜ ⎜ ⎛ 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 ⎠ ⎟ ⎟ ⎞
H p + 1 = ( H p H p H p I p − H p )
where I p is a square matrix of the same size as the H p but with all elements 1 .
Then, each H p matrix contains the coordinates of the n + 1 = 2 p + 1 vertices of a n simplex sharing the same vertices as the n hypercube, which are the n + 1 rows with the first column left off.
The Pythagorean distance between any two vertices of the n simplex as described by the H p matrix are all the same, here being 2 p , which is a property of regular simplexes.
Since this will generate an infinite sequence of such H p square matrices, there’s an infinity of hypercubes with this property. The H p square matrices belong to a special class called Hadamard Matrices.
This is a simplified proof. A fuller proof takes longer. Below contains the coordinates for the 7 -Simplex.
H 2 = ⎝ ⎜ ⎜ ⎜ ⎜ ⎜ ⎜ ⎜ ⎜ ⎜ ⎜ ⎛ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 ⎠ ⎟ ⎟ ⎟ ⎟ ⎟ ⎟ ⎟ ⎟ ⎟ ⎟ ⎞