Puneet Varma (Editor)

Polystick

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Polystick

In recreational mathematics, a polystick (or polyedge) is a polyform with a line segment (a 'stick') as the basic shape. A polystick is a connected set of segments in a regular grid. A square polystick is a connected subset of a regular square grid. A triangular polystick is a connected subset of a regular triangular grid. Polysticks are classified according to how many line segments they contain.

When reflections are considered distinct we have the one-sided polysticks. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, we have the free polysticks. Thus, for example, there are 7 one-sided square tristicks because two of the five shapes have left and right versions.

The following diagram shows the (free) square polysticks of sizes 1 through 4, including the 1 monostick (red), 2 disticks (green), 5 tristicks (blue), and 16 tetrasticks (black).

References

Polystick Wikipedia