Editing 24-cell (section)

==== Helical octagrams and their isoclines ====
The 24-cell contains 18 helical [[octagram]] isoclines (9 black and 9 white). Three pairs of octagram edge-helices are found in each of the three inscribed 16-cells, described elsewhere as the [[16-cell#Helical construction|helical construction of the 16-cell]]. In summary, each 16-cell can be decomposed (three different ways) into a left-right pair of 8-cell rings of {{radic|2}}-edged tetrahedral cells. Each 8-cell ring twists either left or right around an axial octagram helix of eight chords. In each 16-cell there are exactly 6 distinct helices, identical octagrams which each circle through all eight vertices. Each acts as either a left helix or a right helix or a Petrie polygon in each of the six distinct isoclinic rotations (three left and three right), and has no inherent chirality except in respect to a particular rotation. Adjacent vertices on the octagram isoclines are {{radic|2}} = 90° apart, so the circumference of the isocline is 4𝝅. An ''isoclinic'' rotation by 90° in great square invariant planes takes each vertex to its antipodal vertex, four vertices away in either direction along the isocline, and {{radic|4}} = 180° distant across the diameter of the isocline.

Each of the 3 fibrations of the 24-cell's 18 great squares corresponds to a distinct left (and right) isoclinic rotation in great square invariant planes. Each 60° step of the rotation takes 6 disjoint great squares (2 from each 16-cell) to great squares in a neighboring 16-cell, on [[16-cell#Helical construction|8-chord helical isoclines characteristic of the 16-cell]].{{Efn|As [[16-cell#Helical construction|in the 16-cell, the isocline is an octagram]] which intersects only 8 vertices, even though the 24-cell has more vertices closer together than the 16-cell. The isocline curve misses the additional vertices in between. As in the 16-cell, the first vertex it intersects is {{radic|2}} away. The 24-cell employs more octagram isoclines (3 in parallel in each rotation) than the 16-cell does (1 in each rotation). The 3 helical isoclines are Clifford parallel;{{Efn|name=Clifford parallels}} they spiral around each other in a triple helix, with the disjoint helices' corresponding vertex pairs joined by {{radic|1}} {{=}} 60° chords. The triple helix of 3 isoclines contains 24 disjoint {{radic|2}} edges (6 disjoint great squares) and 24 vertices, and constitutes a discrete fibration of the 24-cell, just as the 4-cell ring does.|name=octagram isoclines}}

In the 24-cell, these 18 helical octagram isoclines can be found within the six orthogonal [[#4-cell rings|4-cell rings]] of octahedra. Each 4-cell ring has cells bonded vertex-to-vertex around a great square axis, and we find antipodal vertices at opposite vertices of the great square. A {{radic|4}} chord (the diameter of the great square and of the isocline) connects them. [[#Boundary cells|Boundary cells]] describes how the {{radic|2}} axes of the 24-cell's octahedral cells are the edges of the 16-cell's tetrahedral cells, each tetrahedron is inscribed in a (tesseract) cube, and each octahedron is inscribed in a pair of cubes (from different tesseracts), bridging them.{{Efn|name=octahedral diameters}} The vertex-bonded octahedra of the 4-cell ring also lie in different tesseracts.{{Efn|Two tesseracts share only vertices, not any edges, faces, cubes (with inscribed tetrahedra), or octahedra (whose central square planes are square faces of cubes). An octahedron that touches another octahedron at a vertex (but not at an edge or a face) is touching an octahedron in another tesseract, and a pair of adjacent cubes in the other tesseract whose common square face the octahedron spans, and a tetrahedron inscribed in each of those cubes.|name=vertex-bonded octahedra}} The isocline's four {{radic|4}} diameter chords form an [[Octagram#Star polygon compounds|octagram<sub>8{4}=4{2}</sub>]] with {{radic|4}} edges that each run from the vertex of one cube and octahedron and tetrahedron, to the vertex of another cube and octahedron and tetrahedron (in a different tesseract), straight through the center of the 24-cell on one of the 12 {{radic|4}} axes.

The octahedra in the 4-cell rings are vertex-bonded to more than two other octahedra, because three 4-cell rings (and their three axial great squares, which belong to different 16-cells) cross at 90° at each bonding vertex. At that vertex the octagram makes two right-angled turns at once: 90° around the great square, and 90° orthogonally into a different 4-cell ring entirely. The 180° four-edge arc joining two ends of each {{radic|4}} diameter chord of the octagram runs through the volumes and opposite vertices of two face-bonded {{radic|2}} tetrahedra (in the same 16-cell), which are also the opposite vertices of two vertex-bonded octahedra in different 4-cell rings (and different tesseracts). The [[octagram|720° octagram]] isocline runs through 8 vertices of the four-cell ring and through the volumes of 16 tetrahedra. At each vertex, there are three great squares and six octagram isoclines (three black-white pairs) that cross at the vertex.{{Efn|name=completely orthogonal Clifford parallels are special}}

This is the characteristic rotation of the 16-cell, ''not'' the 24-cell's characteristic rotation, and it does not take whole 16-cells ''of the 24-cell'' to each other the way the [[#Helical hexagrams and their isoclines|24-cell's rotation in great hexagon planes]] does.{{Efn|The [[600-cell#Squares and 4𝝅 octagrams|600-cell's isoclinic rotation in great square planes]] takes whole 16-cells to other 16-cells in different 24-cells.}}

{| class="wikitable" width=610
!colspan=5|Five ways of looking at a [[Skew polygon|skew]] [[24-gon#Related polygons|24-gram]]
|-
![[16-cell#Rotations|Edge path]]
![[Petrie polygon]]s
![[600-cell#Squares and 4𝝅 octagrams|In a 600-cell]]
![[#Squares|Discrete fibration]]
![[16-cell#Helical construction|Diameter chords]]
|-
![[16-cell#Helical construction|16-cells]]<sub>3{3/8}</sub>
![[Petrie polygon#The Petrie polygon of regular polychora (4-polytopes)|Dodecagons]]<sub>2{12}</sub>
![[24-gon#Related polygons|24-gram]]<sub>{24/5}</sub>
![[#Squares|Squares]]<sub>6{4}</sub>
![[24-gon#Related polygons|<sub>{24/12}={12/2}</sub>]]
|-
|align=center|[[File:Regular_star_figure_3(8,3).svg|120px]]
|align=center|[[File:Regular_star_figure_2(12,1).svg|120px]]
|align=center|[[File:Regular_star_polygon_24-5.svg|120px]]
|align=center|[[File:Regular_star_figure_6(4,1).svg|120px]]
|align=center|[[File:Regular_star_figure_12(2,1).svg|120px]]
|-
|The 24-cell's three inscribed Clifford parallel 16-cells revealed as disjoint 8-point 4-polytopes with {{radic|2}} edges.{{Efn|name=octagram isoclines}}
|2 [[skew polygon]]s of 12 {{radic|1}} edges each. The 24-cell can be decomposed into 2 disjoint zig-zag [[dodecagon]]s (4 different ways).{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=292-293|loc=Table I(ii); 24-cell Petrie polygon ''h<sub>1</sub>'' is {12} }}
|In [[600-cell#Hexagons|compounds of 5 24-cells]], isoclines with [[600-cell#Golden chords|golden chords]] of length <big>φ</big> {{=}} {{radic|2.𝚽}} connect all 24-cells in [[600-cell#Squares and 4𝝅 octagrams|24-chord circuits]].{{Sfn|Coxeter|1973|pp=292-293|loc=Table I(ii); 24-cell Petrie polygon orthogonal ''h<sub>2</sub>'' is [[Dodecagon#Related figures|{12/5}]], half of [[24-gon#Related polygons|{24/5}]] as each Petrie polygon is half the 24-cell}}
|Their isoclinic rotation takes 6 Clifford parallel (disjoint) great squares with {{radic|2}} edges to each other.
|Two vertices four {{radic|2}} chords apart on the circular isocline are antipodal vertices joined by a {{radic|4}} axis.
|}