A hexahedron (plural: hexahedra or hexahedrons) or sexahedron (plural: sexahedra or sexahedrons) is any
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 o ...
with six
faces. A
cube
In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. Viewed from a corner it is a hexagon and its net is usually depicted as a cross.
The cube is the only ...
, for example, is a
regular hexahedron with all its faces
square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
, and three squares around each
vertex
Vertex, vertices or vertexes may refer to:
Science and technology Mathematics and computer science
*Vertex (geometry), a point where two or more curves, lines, or edges meet
*Vertex (computer graphics), a data structure that describes the position ...
.
There are seven topologically distinct ''convex'' hexahedra,
Counting polyhedra
/ref> one of which exists in two mirror image forms. There are three topologically distinct concave hexahedra. Two polyhedra are "topologically distinct" if they have intrinsically different arrangements of faces and vertices, such that it is impossible to distort one into the other simply by changing the lengths of edges or the angles between edges or faces.
Convex, Cuboid
Convex, Others
Concave
There are three further topologically distinct hexahedra that can only be realised as ''concave'' figures:
A digon
In geometry, a digon is a polygon with two sides (edges) and two vertices. Its construction is degenerate in a Euclidean plane because either the two sides would coincide or one or both would have to be curved; however, it can be easily visu ...
al 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 ...
can be considered a degenerate form of hexahedron, having two opposing digonal faces and four triangular faces. However, digons are usually disregarded in the definition of non-spherical polyhedra, and this case is often simply considered a tetrahedron and the four remaining triangular faces considered to compose the full solid.
See also
* Prismatoid
In geometry, a prismatoid is a polyhedron whose vertices all lie in two parallel planes. Its lateral faces can be trapezoids or triangles. If both planes have the same number of vertices, and the lateral faces are either parallelograms or ...
References
External links
Polyhedra with 4-7 Faces
by Steven Dutch
{{Polyhedra
6 (number)
Polyhedra