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Place one vertex of a tetrahedron at the origin and denote the other vertex vectors by $a,b,c$. Orthogonality of two pairs of opposite edges of a tetrahedron forces $a\cdot b=a\cdot c=b\cdot c$. It follows that the third pair is orthogonal too. The three sums of squared lengths of opposite edges all equal $|a{|}^2+|b{|}^2+|c{|}^2-2a\cdot b$. This gives a dot product test for the special geometry without solving for the face planes.

Translate one vertex of the tetrahedron to the origin and denote the other vertex vectors by $a,b,c$. Translation preserves edge vectors and their dot products. We may label the two known perpendicular pairs of opposite edges of a tetrahedron as the pairs represented by $a,c-b$ and $b,a-c$. Their orthogonality givesHence all three pairwise dot products have the same value $s$. The third pair satisfiesso the third pair of opposite edges is also perpendicular.

Expanding squared lengths using the dot product givesThus the sums of squared opposite-edge lengths are equal. These two conclusions are the basic identities for orthogonal opposite edges of a tetrahedron.

Let the vertex position vectors be $\mathbf{a},\mathbf{b},\mathbf{c},\mathbf{d}$. SupposeSubtracting the second scalar product from the first givesso the remaining pair of opposite edges of a tetrahedron is also perpendicular.

PutDirect expansion gives, cyclically,with the other two differences equal to minus twice the scalar products of the other opposite-edge pairs. All three scalar products vanish, hence