tetragonal adj : of or relating to or shaped like a quadrilateral

English

Adjective

tetragonal

1. Having four sides (as a tetragon); quadrilateral.
2. Having two equal axes and one unequal, and all angles 90°.

See also

• triclinic
• monoclinic
• orthorhombic
• hexagonal
• rhombohedral
• cubic

In crystallography, the tetragonal crystal system is one of the 7 lattice point groups. Tetragonal crystal lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along one of its lattice vectors, so that the cube becomes a rectangular prism with a square base (a by a) and height (c, which is different from a).

There are two tetragonal Bravais lattices: the simple tetragonal (from stretching the simple-cubic lattice) and the centered tetragonal (from stretching either the face-centered or the body-centered cubic lattice).

image:Tetragonal.png|Simple tetragonal image:Tetragonal-body-centered.png|Body-centered tetragonal

The point groups that fall under this crystal system are listed below, followed by their representations in international notation and Schoenflies notation, and mineral examples.

See also

• Crystal structure
• point groups
• Bravais lattices

References

• Hurlbut, Cornelius S.; Klein, Cornelis, 1985, Manual of Mineralogy, 20th ed., pp. 73 - 78, ISBN 0-471-80580-7