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Solid geometry or stereometry is the geometry of three-dimensional Euclidean space (3D space). [1]
A solid figure is the region of 3D space bounded by a two-dimensional surface; for example, a solid ball consists of a sphere and its interior.
Solid geometry deals with the measurements of volumes of various solids, including pyramids, prisms (and other polyhedrons), cubes, cylinders, cones (and truncated cones). [2]
The Pythagoreans dealt with the regular solids, but the pyramid, prism, cone and cylinder were not studied until the Platonists. Eudoxus established their measurement, proving the pyramid and cone to have one-third the volume of a prism and cylinder on the same base and of the same height. He was probably also the discoverer of a proof that the volume enclosed by a sphere is proportional to the cube of its radius. [3]
Basic topics in solid geometry and stereometry include:
Advanced topics include:
Whereas a sphere is the surface of a ball, for other solid figures it is sometimes ambiguous whether the term refers to the surface of the figure or the volume enclosed therein, notably for a cylinder.
Figure | Definitions | Images |
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Parallelepiped |
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Rhombohedron |
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Cuboid |
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Polyhedron | Flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices | |
Uniform polyhedron | Regular polygons as faces and is vertex-transitive (i.e., there is an isometry mapping any vertex onto any other) | |
Prism | A polyhedron comprising an n-sided polygonal base, a second base which is a translated copy (rigidly moved without rotation) of the first, and n other faces (necessarily all parallelograms) joining corresponding sides of the two bases | ![]() |
Cone | Tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex | ![]() |
Cylinder | Straight parallel sides and a circular or oval cross section |
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Ellipsoid | A surface that may be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation | ![]() sphere (top, a=b=c=4), spheroid (bottom left, a=b=5, c=3), tri-axial ellipsoid (bottom right, a=4.5, b=6, c=3) |
Lemon | A lens (or less than half of a circular arc) rotated about an axis passing through the endpoints of the lens (or arc) [6] | ![]() |
Hyperboloid | A surface that is generated by rotating a hyperbola around one of its principal axes | ![]() |
Various techniques and tools are used in solid geometry. Among them, analytic geometry and vector techniques have a major impact by allowing the systematic use of linear equations and matrix algebra, which are important for higher dimensions.
A major application of solid geometry and stereometry is in 3D computer graphics.
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.
Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry, Elements. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms (postulates) and deducing many other propositions (theorems) from these. Although many of Euclid's results had been stated earlier, Euclid was the first to organize these propositions into a logical system in which each result is proved from axioms and previously proved theorems.
In geometry, a 4-polytope is a four-dimensional polytope. It is a connected and closed figure, composed of lower-dimensional polytopal elements: vertices, edges, faces (polygons), and cells (polyhedra). Each face is shared by exactly two cells. The 4-polytopes were discovered by the Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli before 1853.
A sphere is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. Formally, a sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance r from a given point in three-dimensional space. That given point is the center of the sphere, and r is the sphere's radius. The earliest known mentions of spheres appear in the work of the ancient Greek mathematicians.
Spherical geometry or spherics is the geometry of the two-dimensional surface of a sphere or the n-dimensional surface of higher dimensional spheres.
In geometry, the Schläfli symbol is a notation of the form that defines regular polytopes and tessellations.
A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base to a point called the apex or vertex.
A cylinder has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base.
Four-dimensional space (4D) is the mathematical extension of the concept of three-dimensional space (3D). Three-dimensional space is the simplest possible abstraction of the observation that one needs only three numbers, called dimensions, to describe the sizes or locations of objects in the everyday world. For example, the volume of a rectangular box is found by measuring and multiplying its length, width, and height. This concept of ordinary space is called Euclidean space because it corresponds to Euclid's geometry, which was originally abstracted from the spatial experiences of everyday life.
Elementary mathematics, also known as primary or secondary school mathematics, is the study of mathematics topics that are commonly taught at the primary or secondary school levels around the world. It includes a wide range of mathematical concepts and skills, including number sense, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis. These concepts and skills form the foundation for more advanced mathematical study and are essential for success in many fields and everyday life. The study of elementary mathematics is a crucial part of a student's education and lays the foundation for future academic and career success.
The duocylinder, also called the double cylinder or the bidisc, is a geometric object embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, defined as the Cartesian product of two disks of respective radii r1 and r2:
In geometry, a three-dimensional space is a mathematical space in which three values (coordinates) are required to determine the position of a point. Most commonly, it is the three-dimensional Euclidean space, that is, the Euclidean space of dimension three, which models physical space. More general three-dimensional spaces are called 3-manifolds. The term may also refer colloquially to a subset of space, a three-dimensional region, a solid figure.
In hyperbolic geometry, the order-4 dodecahedral honeycomb is one of four compact regular space-filling tessellations of hyperbolic 3-space. With Schläfli symbol {5,3,4}, it has four dodecahedra around each edge, and 8 dodecahedra around each vertex in an octahedral arrangement. Its vertices are constructed from 3 orthogonal axes. Its dual is the order-5 cubic honeycomb.
In hyperbolic geometry, the order-5 dodecahedral honeycomb is one of four compact regular space-filling tessellations in hyperbolic 3-space. With Schläfli symbol {5,3,5}, it has five dodecahedral cells around each edge, and each vertex is surrounded by twenty dodecahedra. Its vertex figure is an icosahedron.
Geometry is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. Geometry is one of the oldest mathematical sciences.
In geometry, a Steinmetz solid is the solid body obtained as the intersection of two or three cylinders of equal radius at right angles. Each of the curves of the intersection of two cylinders is an ellipse.
In geometry, a hypercone is the figure in the 4-dimensional Euclidean space represented by the equation
Geometry is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is called a geometer. Until the 19th century, geometry was almost exclusively devoted to Euclidean geometry, which includes the notions of point, line, plane, distance, angle, surface, and curve, as fundamental concepts.
In geometry, Cavalieri's principle, a modern implementation of the method of indivisibles, named after Bonaventura Cavalieri, is as follows:
In four-dimensional geometry, the spherinder, or spherical cylinder or spherical prism, is a geometric object, defined as the Cartesian product of a 3-ball of radius r1 and a line segment of length 2r2: