In the mines of Geometria, a wonderful piece of crystal has been found. It is formed like a perfect polyhedron with the following properties:
What is the largest value of such that these conditions determine the polyhedron uniquely?
Note: These are strict inequalities in the domain of values which lies in.
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From the information given the polyhedron hast the same structure as a cube, but the angles are not all 90°. Since the edges all have the same length, it follows that the faces are rhombic. Given the value of the area, the angles of the rhombi are α and 1 8 0 − α . It turns out one can indeed assemble such a solid (and they are actually present in some natural crystals):
You can either assemble 3 rhombi together at a vertex with their acute angle and the other 3 likewise and then paste them together (as in the image above). Or you can assemble the 3 rhombi together at a vertex with their obtuse angle and the other 3 likewise, and then paste them together.
Notice that there is a condition on the obtuse angle in order to assemble them at a vertex: the sum of the angles must be less than 360° (you cannot assemble 3 angles at a vertex in Euclidean space if their sum surpasses 360°). So if the 3 obtuse angles sum up to 360° or more, then there is only one possibility. This means 3 ⋅ ( 1 8 0 − α ) ≥ 3 6 0 ⟺ 1 8 0 − α ≥ 1 2 0 ⟺ 6 0 ≥ α So the largest angle α for which those conditions define a unique crystal is 6 0 ° .
Note: at α = 9 0 ° the polyhedron is again unique since then 1 8 0 − α = α (it's a cube). But this value was excluded from the range.