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A165642
Number of ways to assemble an n-cube from 2n labeled (n-1)-cubes with labeled vertices, where left-handed and right-handed counterparts are considered distinct.
3
2, 96, 7864320, 5917648890101760, 131757106216193173905620336640, 213712134396364787165698675955466240000000000000, 52598387159216969439004693376714880262603303706802782208000000000000000
OFFSET
1,1
FORMULA
a(n) = 2 * ((2n-2)!!)^(2n-1) * (2n-1)!
EXAMPLE
For n=2, we are constructing a square from 4 labeled line-segments with labeled endpoints. Solutions which differ by a rotation are considered equivalent, but solutions which are a reflection of each other are considered distinct (assume the square we are constructing is embedded in a plane, so we cannot flip it over to convert a left-handed solution to right-handed solution). There are 6 ways to order the line-segments, and each line-segment can be oriented in 2 ways, so the total number of solutions is 6 * 2^4 = 96. For n=3, we are constructing a cube from 6 labeled squares with labeled vertices (assume we are confined to 3-space, so we consider reflections of the cube to be distinct). Without loss of generality, we can pick one labeled square to serve as our face of reference. For this face, we must decide which side of the square will face the interior of the cube, but we do not care about which rotation we pick as these just translate into rotations of the cube. From this reference square, there are 5! ways to assign the remaining squares to the faces of the cube, and each square can be oriented in 8 ways (we can pick which side of the square will face the interior of the cube, and we can pick from 4 rotations). This gives 2 * 8^5 * 5! solutions. The factor of "2" comes from the choice of which side of the reference square will face the interior of the cube (a choice which would go away if we considered reflections to be equivalent).
CROSSREFS
Cf. A165643 (same idea, but reflections are equivalent). A165644 and A091868 are the corresponding sequences for simplices instead of cubes.
Sequence in context: A168442 A091810 A344662 * A057528 A346565 A224986
KEYWORD
nonn
AUTHOR
Andrew Weimholt, Sep 23 2009
EXTENSIONS
Example reformatted by Andrew Weimholt, Sep 25 2009
STATUS
approved