That angle...

Geometry Level 3

The angle between two faces of a regular tetrahedron is θ \theta .

Which angle is the nearest to θ \theta ?

5 0 50^\circ 7 0 70^\circ 6 0 60^\circ 8 0 80^\circ

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2 solutions

Let the required angle be α α , and the position vectors of the vertices of the tetrahedron be i ^ 1 3 j ^ , i ^ 1 3 j ^ , 2 3 j ^ , 4 6 k ^ \hat i-\frac{1}{\sqrt 3}\hat j, -\hat i-\frac{1}{\sqrt 3}\hat j, \frac{2}{\sqrt 3}\hat j, \frac{4}{\sqrt 6}\hat k .

Then the unit vectors along the normals to the two adjacent faces are

n ^ 1 = k ^ , n ^ 2 = 2 3 k ^ + 8 6 j ^ 12 \hat n_1=\hat k, \hat n_2=\dfrac {-\frac{2}{\sqrt 3}\hat k+\frac{8}{\sqrt 6}\hat j}{\sqrt {12}}

Then the required angle is given by

cos α = n ^ 1 . n ^ 2 = 2 3 × 12 = 1 3 \cos α=\hat n_1.\hat n_2=\dfrac {2}{\sqrt {3\times 12}}=\dfrac {1}{3}

α = cos 1 ( 1 3 ) 70.528779 ° \implies α=\cos^{-1}(\frac{1}{3})\approx \boxed {70.528779\degree} .

Parth Sankhe
Nov 3, 2018

θ = cos 1 1 3 70.529 ° \theta = \cos^{-1}\frac {1}{3}≈70.529°

@Parth Sankhe Proof????

Aaghaz Mahajan - 2 years, 7 months ago

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