Hendecagram

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Regular hendecagrams
Hendecagram.png
Four forms
Edges and vertices 11
Schläfli symbol {11/2}, {11/3}
{11/4}, {11/5}
Coxeter diagram CDel node 1.pngCDel 11.pngCDel rat.pngCDel d2.pngCDel node.png, CDel node 1.pngCDel 11.pngCDel rat.pngCDel d3.pngCDel node.png
CDel node 1.pngCDel 11.pngCDel rat.pngCDel d4.pngCDel node.png, CDel node 1.pngCDel 11.pngCDel rat.pngCDel d5.pngCDel node.png
Symmetry group Dih11, order 22
Internal angle (degrees) ≈114.545° {11/2}
≈81.8182° {11/3}
≈49.0909° {11/4}
≈16.3636° {11/5}

In geometry, a hendecagram (also endecagram or endekagram) is a star polygon that has eleven vertices.

The name hendecagram combine a numeral prefix, hendeca-, with the Greek suffix -gram. The -gram suffix derives from γραμμῆς (grammēs) meaning a line.[1]

Regular henagrams

There are 4 regular hendecagrams,[2] which can be described by the notation {11/2}, {11/3}, {11/4}, and {11/5}; in this notation, the number after the slash indicates the number of steps between pairs of points that are connected by edges. These same four forms can also be considered as stellations of a regular hendecagon.[3]

Regular star polygon 11-2.svg
{11/2}
Regular star polygon 11-3.svg
{11/3}
Regular star polygon 11-4.svg
{11/4}
Regular star polygon 11-5.svg
{11/5}

Construction

As with all odd regular polygons and star polygons whose orders are not products of distinct Fermat primes, the regular hendecagrams cannot be constructed with compass and straightedge.[4] However, Hilton & Pederson (1986) describe folding patterns for making the hendecagrams {11/3}, {11/4}, and {11/5} out of strips of paper.[5]

Applications

Fort Wood's star-shaped walls became the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Prisms over the hendecagrams {11/3} and {11/4} may be used to approximate the shape of DNA molecules.[6]

Fort Wood, now the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York, is a star fort in the form of an irregular 11-point star.[7]

The Topkapı Scroll contains images of an 11-pointed star Girih form used in Islamic art. The star in this scroll is not one of the regular forms of the hendecagram, but instead uses lines that connect the vertices of a hendecagon to nearly-opposite midpoints of the hendecagon's edges.[8]

An 11-point star-shaped cross-section was used in the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster, for the core of the forward section of the rocket (the hollow space within which the fuel burns). This design provided more surface area and greater thrust in the earlier part of a launch, and a slower burn rate and reduced thrust after the points of the star were burned away, at approximately the same time as the rocket passed the sound barrier.[9]

See also

References

  1. γραμμή, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
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External links