Birotunda

In geometry, a birotunda is any member of a family of dihedral-symmetric polyhedra, formed from two rotunda adjoined through the largest face. They are similar to a bicupola but instead of alternating squares and triangles, it alternates pentagons and triangles around an axis. There are two forms, ortho- and gyro-: an orthobirotunda has one of the two rotundas is placed as the mirror reflection of the other, while in a gyrobirotunda one rotunda is twisted relative to the other.

The pentagonal birotundas can be formed with regular faces, one a Johnson solid, the other a semiregular polyhedron:

• pentagonal orthobirotunda,
• pentagonal gyrobirotunda, which is also called an icosidodecahedron.

Other forms can be generated with dihedral symmetry and distorted equilateral pentagons.

Examples

Birotundas

4	5	6	7	8
File:Green square orthobirotunda.svg square orthobirotunda	File:Green pentagonal orthobirotunda.svg pentagonal orthobirotunda	File:Green hexagonal orthobirotunda.svg hexagonal orthobirotunda	File:Green heptagonal orthobirotunda.svg heptagonal orthobirotunda	File:Green octagonal orthobirotunda.svg octagonal orthobirotunda
File:Green square gyrobirotunda.svg square gyrobirotunda	File:Green pentagonal gyrobirotunda.svg pentagonal gyrobirotunda (icosidodecahedron)	File:Green hexagonal gyrobirotunda.svg hexagonal gyrobirotunda	File:Green heptagonal gyrobirotunda.svg heptagonal gyrobirotunda	File:Green octagonal gyrobirotunda.svg octagonal gyrobirotunda

See also

• Gyroelongated pentagonal birotunda
• Elongated pentagonal orthobirotunda
• Elongated pentagonal gyrobirotunda

References

• Norman W. Johnson, "Convex Solids with Regular Faces", Canadian Journal of Mathematics, 18, 1966, pages 169–200. Contains the original enumeration of the 92 solids and the conjecture that there are no others.
• The first proof that there are only 92 Johnson solids.