[Math] Stereographic projection of cube and tetrahedron

geometry

A cube has its vertices on the unit sphere $S$ and its edges parallel to the coordinate axes. Find the stereographic projections of the vertices onto the complex plane. Same problem for a regular tetrahedron in general position.

If we know the coordinate $(x_1,x_2,x_3)$ for a vertex, we can calculate the stereographic projection using the formula $z=\dfrac{x_1+ix_2}{1-x_3}$. So the problem is to calculate the vertices of the cube. One vertex of the cube must be of the form $(t,t,t)$, where $t^2+t^2+t^2=1$, so $t=\dfrac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$. Then the other vertices are formed by taking combinations for $\pm t$.

Now for the regular tetrahedron, I don't understand what is meant by "general position". What should be the tetrahedron in question?

Best Answer

“General position” means “no special position”. This is the opposite of the specification that the cube edges are parallel to the coordinate axes. In this second task, you should assume that your tetrahedron is inscribed in the sphere, but may be rotated arbitrarily. If you want to do this in terms of coordinates, you should introduce parameters describing that rotation. But a more geometric approach might work as well, and give a description of what those projections will look like no matter the rotation.

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