Non-congruent Polyhedrons with same Volume and Surface Area?
This is inspired by Manjyomesando1's very interesting question:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aqs8_vrKQ9.drMgE6zse.wnty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20090216140728AAIDqbR&show=7#profile-info-VS9BoXrHaa
As shown there, infinitely many pairs of non-congruent polyhedrons with the same volume (V) and surface area(S) exist, I repeat here some of them for convenience:
Octahedrons:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3004/2802617542_794c3a85db_o.gif
Hexahedrons:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3582/3294907454_839e2907fa_o.gif
/both #2 and #3 can be obtained truncating Kepler's Stella Octangula:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_octangula
removing 6 out of its 8 thorns/
Dragan K's cuboids: 1 x 1 x (p(p+1)/2) and p x p x ((p+1)/(2p)) /p≠1/
Now the question: what is the combined minimal number of faces of such pair?
I began to play with a right triangular prism with right isosceles bases and lateral faces in planes x=0, y=0, x+y=1 as shown here:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3570/3382194753_04922ac58f_o.gif
Taking red triangles instead of black ones as bases, we obtain a pair of pentahedrons (#1 and #2) with the desired property - we can even join the rightmost vertexes in #2 to obtain a pyramid for the following result:
Prism: vertexes: (1, 0, 0), (1, 0, -2), (0, 1, 0), (0, 1, 2), (0, 0, ±1);
faces x = 0, y = 0, x + y = 1, x - y + z - 1 = 0, x - y + z + 1 = 0;
Pyramid: vertexes: (1, 0, 0), (0, 1, ±2), (0, 0, ±1);
faces x = 0, y = 0, x + y = 1, x - y + z - 1 = 0, x - y - z - 1 = 0
V = 1, S = 4 + 2√2 + √3 for both of them.
Finally, is 10 faces the combined minimum?
JB's example in EDIT 4 is a masterpiece!
Congratulations!!!
For me personally that was an astonishing result, but the minimum is 8 indeed - one of the most valuable answers on a mathematical question I have received so far.
Now it remains (may turn out difficult) to determine what is the combined minimal number of faces of a pair of topologically different polyhedrons with the desired property. Since all tetrahedrons are topologically equivalent and there is such pair of pentahedrons (my example above), does a tetrahedron-pentahedron pair exist, i.e. is that minimum 9?