Two interlinked squares.


Two interlinked squares. You can think of this as two adjacent sides of a Rubic cube, flattened to lie on a plane.

The left square and the right square have two vertices in common, v3 and v4. They share a single edge, e10. The edge numbers begin with 7 so that the group can be viewed as a subgroup of all permutations on 13 objects. Define

  • a   Clockwise rotation through π/2 of the left square.
  • b   Clockwise rotation through π/2 of the right square.
  • A   Counter-clockwise rotation through π/2 of the left square.
  • B   Counter-clockwise rotation through π/2 of the right square.
a and b generate a subgroup of permutations on 13 objects. One can focus on the vertices alone, in which case a and b generate a subgroup of permutations on 6 objects. Similarly, a and b generate a subgroup of permutations on 7 objects, the edges. The four "radio buttons" below generate a, A, b & B.

a  
A  
b  
B  
List of actions:  


abAB     baBA     ABab     BAba    


Michael Zuker
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Spring 2008