From teaching experience. XIII. Name of crystal polyhedron. On the occasion of the 130th anniversary of A. F. Losev's birth and the 100th anniversary of the «Philosophy of the Name»

Abstract

The article is timed to the 130th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Russian philosopher A. F. Losev (1893—1988) and the 100th anniversary of his work «The Philosophy of Name». Against the background of his ideas, the article considers the nomenclature of polyhedral crystalline simple forms, developed by the scientific school of the «Fedorov Institute» under the leadership of A. K. Boldyrev in the walls of the Leningrad Mining Institute. A general algorithmic approach to the nomenclature of convex polyhedra, convenient for computer data processing, is proposed. It opens an extensive research programme on the frontier of combinatorial theory of convex polyhedra, linear algebra and number theory. The aim of the article is to improve the teaching of crystallography in Russian universities and to broaden the outlook of students in related fields of knowledge.