Editing Widmanstätten pattern (section)

==Shape and orientation==
[[File:120px-Octahedron-slowturn.gif|thumb|Octahedron]]
[[File:Cutting the octaedron.png|thumb|Different cuts produce different Widmanstätten patterns]]

Cutting the meteorite along different planes affects the shape and direction of Widmanstätten figures because [[kamacite]] [[lamella (materials)|lamellae]] in [[octahedrite]]s are precisely arranged. Octahedrites derive their name from the crystal structure paralleling an [[octahedron]]. Opposite faces are parallel so, although an octahedron has 8 faces, there are only 4 sets of kamacite plates. Iron and nickel-iron form crystals with an external octahedral structure only very rarely, but these orientations are still plainly detectable crystallographically without the external habit. Cutting an octahedrite meteorite along different planes (or any other material with octahedral symmetry, which is a sub-class of cubic symmetry) will result in one of these cases:
* perpendicular cut to one of the three (cubic) axes: two sets of bands at right angles each other
* parallel cut to one of the octahedron faces (cutting all 3 cubic axes at the same distance from the crystallographic center) : three sets of bands running at 60° angles each other
* any other angle: four sets of bands with different angles of intersection