Equidecomposability of a Cube into 6 Trirectangular Tetrahedra

Solution 1:

That such a decomposition doesn't exist can be shown by looking at the interior solid angles at the vertices.

The cube has eight interior solid angles of $\pi/2$ each.

Each of the six tetrahedra has one interior solid angle of $\pi/2$ and three that can be computed as shown here:

$$\Omega=\phi_{ab}+\phi_{bc}+\phi_{ac}-\pi=\pi/2 + \arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}+ \arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}-\pi=2\arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}-\pi/2\;.$$

Thus, the sum of the interior solid angles of the cube is $4\pi$, and the sum of the interior solid angles of the tetrahedra is

$$6\left(\pi/2+3\left(2\arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}-\pi/2\right)\right)=6\left(6\arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}-\pi\right)\;.$$

This is not equal to $4\pi$, since $\arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$ is not a rational multiple of $\pi$. (Here's an elementary proof of that fact.) In fact it is almost $5\pi$.

[Edit: I just realized in the shower that all the following analysis of potential inner vertices is actually not necessary. No matter what happens at the inner vertices, we have to fill the eight vertices of the cube with vertices of the tetrahedra, and the six vertices with interior solid angle $\pi/2$ are not enough to do it, so we have to use at least one of the others, but then we can't make the sum come out to $4\pi$, a rational multiple of $\pi$.]

This establishes that you can't fill the cube with the six tetrahedra by letting all their vertices coincide with the cube's vertices. It seems geometrically obvious that you can't do it with any of the vertices inside the cube, either, but this, too, can be proved rigorously using the solid angles. If there were a vertex inside the cube, the entire solid angle of $4\pi$ around that inner vertex would have to be filled. The candidates for filling it are a face of a tetrahedron, which subtends a solid angle of $2\pi$, an edge of a tetrahedron, which subtends a solid angle of twice the dihedral angle of the intersecting planes, i.e. either $\pi$ or $2\arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$, or an interior solid angle of a vertex of a tetrahedron. Thus, adding up all the solid angles at the eight outer vertices and at $v$ inner vertices, the following equation would have to have solutions with non-negative integer values of $j$, $k$, $l$, $m$, $n$ and $v$:

$$6\left(6\arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}-\pi\right)+j(2\pi)+k(\pi)+l\left(2\arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\right)+m(\pi/2)+n\left(\arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}-\pi/2\right)$$

$$=4\pi+v(4\pi)\;.$$

This is impossible, since the coefficient in front of $\arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$ is non-zero, and thus the equation would imply that this is a rational multiple of $\pi$, which it isn't (see above).

P.S.: I just realized I forgot to mention an essential part of the proof:

$$\cos 2\phi = 2 \cos^2 \phi - 1\;,$$

$$\arccos x = \frac{1}{2}\arccos(2x^2-1)\;,$$

$$\arccos \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}=\frac{1}{2}\arccos(-\frac{1}{3})\;,$$

so $\arccos \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$ is rational iff $\arccos(-\frac{1}{3})$ is rational; then we can apply the theorem I linked to above.

Solution 2:

I'm pretty sure there isn't. The most straightforward way of proving this is probably to (a) show that any embedding of the trirectangular tetrahedron in the cube is 'extremal' (that is, that its right-triangle faces are of necessity aligned with the faces of the cube) and then (b) show that any possible extremal embedding of a trirectangular tetrahedron misses some point in the cube. (a) is a little bit tricky, but once you've got that, (b) is easy (what point is most likely to be missed?).