[Math] Proof of the following: How many $(n-2)$ dimensional faces from a corner of a hypercube

combinatorial-geometrycomputational geometrydimension-theory-analysiseuclidean-geometrygeometry

I asked a question earlier regarding the number of $(n-2)$ dimensional faces exiting a corner of an $n$ dimensional hypercube. (For example the number of points in a corner of a square, or the number of edges in the corner of a cube, the number of planes in a corner of a hypercube etc…)

My gut feeling was that the answer is $n$ choose 2 and this is because there are exactly $n$ $n-1$ dimensional hyperfaces meeting at the corner of an $n$ dimensional hypercube and any combination of two of them (i believe) yields a valid $(n-2)$ dimensional face. For example,

Given a cube there are 3 faces meeting at the corner of the cube and therefore there are 3 choose 2 = 3 edges exiting a corner.

For a square there are 2 edges meeting at the corner and there are therefore 2 choose 2 = 1 point in the corner.

However, I did recieve an answer of $2n – 3$ $(n-2)$ dimensional components. This was without explanation but curiously enough:

$$2(3) – 3 = 6 – 3 = 3$$
$$2(2) – 3 = 4 – 3 = 1$$

So this answer appears to work as well for dimensions 2 and 3. Unfortunately I know not how to check for dimension 4. Can somebody answer this with a proof of which formula is correct and why?

Best Answer

Consider the $n$-dimension hypercube with vertices at $(\pm x,\pm x,\ldots,\pm x)$. Its volume $V_n(x)$ is $(2x)^n$. Imagine we expand the hypercube a little bit from $x$ to $x + \delta$, each $m$-dimension face of the hypercube will contribute an extra hypervolume $V_m(x) \delta^{n-m}$ to the new hypercube. This means:

$$V_{n}(x+\delta) = \sum_{m=0}^n N_{n,m} V_{m}(x)\delta^{n-m}$$ where $N_{n,m}$ is the number of $m$-dimension "faces" of a $n$-dimension hypercube.

One the other hand, binomial theorem tell us:

$$V_n(x+\delta) = 2^n(x+\delta)^n = 2^n\sum_{m=0}^n \binom{n}{m} x^{m} \delta^{n-m} =\sum_{m=0}^n 2^{n-m}\binom{n}{m}V_{m}(x)\delta^{n-m} $$

By comparing the coefficients of powers in $\delta$, we immediately get:

$$N_{n,m} = 2^{n-m} \binom{n}{m}$$

In particular,

$$N_{n,n-2} = 2^2 \binom{n}{n-2} = 2^2 \binom{n}{2} = 2n(n-1)$$

Update

Let $N_{n,m}^c$ be the number of $m$-dimension face in contact to a corner in a $n$-dimension hypercube. If you compare the volume of the hypercube $[0,x]^n$ with that of $[0,x+\delta]^n$ like above, you will obtain:

$$N_{n,m}^c = \binom{n}{m}$$

An alternate combinatorial argument go like this. Since a $n$-dimension hypercube has $N_{n,0} = 2^n$ vertices. There are $2^n N_{n,m}^c$ ways of picking a corner and then a $m$-dimension face in contact to that corner. We can arrive the same count by picking the $m$-dimension face first. As a result, we again get:

$$2^n N_{n,m}^c = 2^m N_{n,m} \quad\implies\quad N_{n,m}^{c} = 2^{m-n} N_{n,m} = \binom{n}{m}$$

BTW, you $n$ choose $2$ argument also works. In any event,

$$N_{n,n-2}^c = \binom{n}{n-2} = \binom{n}{2} = \frac{n(n-1)}{2}$$

For tesseract, this is $6 \ne 2 n - 3$. Let's say your tesseract is $\{\;(x,y,z,t) : 0\le x,y,z,t \le 1\;\}$. The six $2$-dimension faces in contact to the origin are:

$$\begin{cases} x = y = 0\text{ face} &\to&\{0\} &\times& \{0\} &\times& [0,1] &\times& [0,1]\\ x = z = 0\text{ face} &\to&\{0\} &\times& [0,1] &\times& \{0\} &\times& [0,1]\\ x = t = 0\text{ face} &\to&\{0\} &\times& [0,1] &\times& [0,1] &\times& \{0\}\\ y = z = 0\text{ face} &\to&[0,1] &\times& \{0\} &\times& \{0\} &\times& [0,1]\\ y = t = 0\text{ face} &\to&[0,1] &\times& \{0\} &\times& [0,1] &\times& \{0\}\\ z = t = 0\text{ face} &\to&[0,1] &\times& [0,1] &\times& \{0\} &\times& \{0\} \end{cases}$$

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