Prismatoid (parameters H,A₁,A₂,A₃)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

In
geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...
, a prismatoid is a
polyhedron In geometry, a polyhedron (plural polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices. A convex polyhedron is the convex hull of finitely many points, not all on ...
whose vertices all lie in two parallel planes. Its lateral faces can be
trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a convex quadrilateral in Eu ...
s or
triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colline ...
s. If both planes have the same number of vertices, and the lateral faces are either parallelograms or trapezoids, it is called a prismoid.


Volume

If the areas of the two parallel faces are and , the cross-sectional area of the intersection of the prismatoid with a plane midway between the two parallel faces is , and the height (the distance between the two parallel faces) is , then the
volume Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). Th ...
of the prismatoid is given by V = \fracB. E. Meserve, R. E. Pingry: ''Some Notes on the Prismoidal Formula''. The Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 45, No. 4 (April 1952), pp. 257-263 (This formula follows immediately by integrating the area parallel to the two planes of vertices by
Simpson's rule In numerical integration, Simpson's rules are several approximations for definite integrals, named after Thomas Simpson (1710–1761). The most basic of these rules, called Simpson's 1/3 rule, or just Simpson's rule, reads \int_a^b f(x) \, ...
, since that rule is exact for integration of
polynomial In mathematics, a polynomial is an expression consisting of indeterminates (also called variables) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and positive-integer powers of variables. An example ...
s of degree up to 3, and in this case the area is at most a quadratic function in the height.)


Prismatoid families

Families of prismatoids include: *
Pyramids A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...
, in which one plane contains only a single point; * Wedges, in which one plane contains only two points; * Prisms, whose polygons in each plane are congruent and joined by rectangles or parallelograms; *
Antiprism In geometry, an antiprism or is a polyhedron composed of two parallel direct copies (not mirror images) of an polygon, connected by an alternating band of triangles. They are represented by the Conway notation . Antiprisms are a subclass o ...
s, whose polygons in each plane are congruent and joined by an alternating strip of triangles; * Star antiprisms; * Cupolae, in which the polygon in one plane contains twice as many points as the other and is joined to it by alternating triangles and rectangles; * Frusta obtained by truncation of a pyramid; *
Quadrilateral In geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four edges (sides) and four corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''latus'', meaning "side". It is also called a tetragon, ...
-faced hexahedral prismatoids: *# Parallelepipeds – six parallelogram faces *#
Rhombohedron In geometry, a rhombohedron (also called a rhombic hexahedron or, inaccurately, a rhomboid) is a three-dimensional figure with six faces which are rhombi. It is a special case of a parallelepiped where all edges are the same length. It can be us ...
s – six
rhombus In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (plural rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The ...
faces *#
Trigonal trapezohedra In geometry, a trigonal trapezohedron is a rhombohedron (a polyhedron with six rhombus-shaped faces) in which, additionally, all six faces are congruent. Alternative names for the same shape are the ''trigonal deltohedron'' or ''isohedral rhomboh ...
– six congruent rhombus faces *# Cuboids – six rectangular faces *# Quadrilateral frusta – an
apex The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics), a teenaged super villainess in the Marvel Universe * Ape-X, a super-intelligent ape in the Squadron Supreme universe *Apex, ...
- truncated square pyramid *# Cube – six square faces


Higher dimensions

In general, a
polytope In elementary geometry, a polytope is a geometric object with flat sides ('' faces''). Polytopes are the generalization of three-dimensional polyhedra to any number of dimensions. Polytopes may exist in any general number of dimensions as an ...
is prismatoidal if its vertices exist in two hyperplanes. For example, in four dimensions, two polyhedra can be placed in two parallel 3-spaces, and connected with polyhedral sides.


References


External links

* {{Polyhedron-stub