Wedge (geometry)

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Wedge
Geometric wedge.png
Faces 2 triangles,
3 quadrilaterals
Edges 9
Vertices 6

In solid geometry, a wedge is a polyhedron defined by two triangles and three trapezoid faces. A wedge has five faces, nine edges, and six vertices.

Contents

Properties

A wedge is a polyhedron of a rectangular base, with the faces are two isosceles triangles and two trapezoids that meet at the top of an edge. [1] . A prismatoid is defined as a polyhedron where its vertices lie on two parallel planes, with its lateral faces are triangles, trapezoids, and parallelograms; [2] the wedge is an example of prismatoid because of its top edge is parallel to the rectangular base. [3] The volume of a wedge is where the base rectangle is by , is the apex edge length parallel to , and is the height from the base rectangle to the apex edge. [1]

Examples

A wedge that is parallel Triangular prism wedge.png
A wedge that is parallel

In some special cases, the wedge is the right prism if all edges connecting triangles are equal in length, and the triangular faces are perpendicular to the rectangular base. [3]

Wedges can be created from decomposition of other polyhedra. For instance, the dodecahedron can be divided into a central cube with 6 wedges covering the cube faces. The orientations of the wedges are such that the triangle and trapezoid faces can connect and form a regular pentagon.

Two obtuse wedges can be formed by bisecting a regular tetrahedron on a plane parallel to two opposite edges.

Special cases
Obtuse wedge.png
Obtuse wedge as a bisected regular tetrahedron
Tet-oct-wedge.png
A wedge constructed from 8 triangular faces and 2 squares. It can be seen as a tetrahedron augmented by two square pyramids.
Cube in dodecahedron.png
The regular dodecahedron can be decomposed into a central cube and 6 wedges over the 6 square faces.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cube</span> Solid object with six equal square faces

In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces. It has twelve edges and eight vertices. It can be represented as a rectangular cuboid with six square faces, or a parallelepiped with equal edges. It is an example of many type of solids: Platonic solid, regular polyhedron, parallelohedron, zonohedron, and plesiohedron. The dual polyhedron of a cube is the regular octahedron.

In geometry, a dodecahedron or duodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces. The most familiar dodecahedron is the regular dodecahedron with regular pentagons as faces, which is a Platonic solid. There are also three regular star dodecahedra, which are constructed as stellations of the convex form. All of these have icosahedral symmetry, order 120.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regular icosahedron</span> Polyhedron with 20 regular triangular faces

In geometry, the regular icosahedron is a convex polyhedron that can be constructed from pentagonal antiprism by attaching two pentagonal pyramids with regular faces to each of its pentagonal faces, or by putting points onto the cube. The resulting polyhedron has 20 equilateral triangles as its faces, 30 edges, and 12 vertices. It is an example of a Platonic solid and of a deltahedron. The icosahedral graph represents the skeleton of a regular icosahedron.

In geometry, an octahedron is a polyhedron with eight faces. An octahedron can be considered as a square bipyramid. When the edges of a square bipyramid are all equal in length, it produces a regular octahedron, a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet at each vertex. It is also an example of a deltahedron. An octahedron is the three-dimensional case of the more general concept of a cross polytope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prismatoid</span> Polyhedron with all vertices in two parallel planes

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 trapezoids, it is called a prismoid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tetrahedron</span> Polyhedron with four faces

In geometry, a tetrahedron, also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertices. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the ordinary convex polyhedra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hexagon</span> Shape with six sides

In geometry, a hexagon is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhombus</span> Quadrilateral with sides of equal length

In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus 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 rhombus is often called a "diamond", after the diamonds suit in playing cards which resembles the projection of an octahedral diamond, or a lozenge, though the former sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 60° angle, and the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centroid</span> Mean position of all the points in a shape

In mathematics and physics, the centroid, also known as geometric center or center of figure, of a plane figure or solid figure is the arithmetic mean position of all the points in the surface of the figure. The same definition extends to any object in -dimensional Euclidean space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trapezoid</span> Convex quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides

In geometry, a trapezoid in North American English, or trapezium in British English, is a quadrilateral that has one pair of parallel sides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prism (geometry)</span> Solid with 2 parallel n-gonal bases connected by n parallelograms

In geometry, a prism is a polyhedron comprising an n-sided polygon base, a second base which is a translated copy of the first, and n other faces, necessarily all parallelograms, joining corresponding sides of the two bases. All cross-sections parallel to the bases are translations of the bases. Prisms are named after their bases, e.g. a prism with a pentagonal base is called a pentagonal prism. Prisms are a subclass of prismatoids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disdyakis dodecahedron</span> Geometric shape with 48 faces

In geometry, a disdyakis dodecahedron,, is a Catalan solid with 48 faces and the dual to the Archimedean truncated cuboctahedron. As such it is face-transitive but with irregular face polygons. It resembles an augmented rhombic dodecahedron. Replacing each face of the rhombic dodecahedron with a flat pyramid creates a polyhedron that looks almost like the disdyakis dodecahedron, and is topologically equivalent to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Square pyramid</span> Pyramid with a square base

In geometry, a square pyramid is a pyramid with a square base, having a total of five faces. If the apex of the pyramid is directly above the center of the square, it is a right square pyramid with four isosceles triangles; otherwise, it is an oblique square pyramid. When all of the pyramid's edges are equal in length, its triangles are all equilateral. It is called an equilateral square pyramid, an example of a Johnson solid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triangular cupola</span> Cupola with hexagonal base

In geometry, the triangular cupola is the cupola with hexagon as its base and triangle as its top. If the edges are equal in length, the triangular cupola is the Johnson solid. It can be seen as half a cuboctahedron. The triangular cupola can be applied to construct many polyhedrons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Square cupola</span> Cupola with octagonal base

In geometry, the square cupola is the cupola with octagonal base. In the case of edges are equal in length, it is the Johnson solid, a convex polyhedron with faces are regular. It can be used to construct many polyhedrons, particularly in other Johnson solids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snub disphenoid</span> Convex polyhedron with 12 triangular faces

In geometry, the snub disphenoid is a convex polyhedron with 12 equilateral triangles as its faces. It is an example of deltahedron and Johnson solid. It can be constructed in different approaches. This shape also has alternative names called Siamese dodecahedron, triangular dodecahedron, trigonal dodecahedron, or dodecadeltahedron; these names mean the 12-sided polyhedron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triangular prism</span> Prism with a 3-sided base

In geometry, a triangular prism or trigonal prism is a prism with 2 triangular bases. If the edges pair with each triangle's vertex and if they are perpendicular to the base, it is a right triangular prism. A right triangular prism may be both semiregular and uniform.

In geometry, a pyramid is a polyhedron formed by connecting a polygonal base and a point, called the apex. Each base edge and apex form a triangle, called a lateral face. It is a conic solid with a polygonal base. Many types of pyramids can be found by determining the shape of bases, or cutting off the apex. It can be generalized into higher dimension, known as hyperpyramid. All pyramids are self-dual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Base (geometry)</span> Bottom of a geometric figure

In geometry, a base is a side of a polygon or a face of a polyhedron, particularly one oriented perpendicular to the direction in which height is measured, or on what is considered to be the "bottom" of the figure. This term is commonly applied in plane geometry to triangles, parallelograms, trapezoids, and in solid geometry to cylinders, cones, pyramids, parallelepipeds, prisms, and frustums.

References

  1. 1 2 Harris, J. W.; Stocker, H. (1998). ""Wedge". §4.5.2". Handbook of Mathematics and Computational Science. New York: Springer. p. 102. ISBN   978-0-387-94746-4.
  2. Alsina, Claudi; Nelsen, Roger B. (2015), A Mathematical Space Odyssey: Solid Geometry in the 21st Century, Mathematical Association of America, p. 85, ISBN   978-0-88385-358-0 .
  3. 1 2 Haul, Wm. S. (1893). Mensuration. Ginn & Company. p. 45.