What are Three-Dimensional Shapes?

The shapes which can be measured in 3 directions are called three-dimensional shapes. These
shapes are also called solid shapes. Length, width, and height (or depth or thickness) are the
three measurements of the three-dimensional shapes. They are different from 2D shapes because
they have thickness. A number of examples can be found in everyday life. Some of them are:

Three Dimensional Shapes

The Rubik’s Cube is an example of a cube, the drum is a cylinder, the birthday cap is a cone and
the orange is a sphere.

Faces, Edges and Vertices

Three-dimensional shapes have many attributes such as faces, edges and vertices. The flat
surfaces of the 3D shapes are called the faces. The line segment where two faces meet is called
an edge. A vertex is a point where 3 edges meet.

Let us consider a few shapes to learn about them.

 All edges are equal

Cuboid

 8 vertices
 12 edges
 6 faces

Prism

 6 vertices
 9 edges
  5 faces – 2 triangles and 3 rectangles

Square Pyramid

 5 vertices
 8 edges
 5 faces

Cylinder

 No vertex
 2 edges
 2 flat faces – circles
 1 curved face

Cone
  1 vertex
 1 edge
 1 flat face – circle
 1 curved face

Sphere

 No vertex
 No edges
 1 curved face

Polyhedrons

Polyhedrons (or polyhedra) are straight-sided solid shapes. Polyhedrons are based on polygons,
two dimensional plane shapes with straight lines.
See our page Properties of Polygons for more about working with polygons.

Polyhedrons are defined as having:

 Straight edges.
 Flat sides called faces.
 Corners, called vertices.

Polyhedrons are also often defined by the number of edges, faces and vertices they have, as well
as whether their faces are all the same shape and size. Like polygons, polyhedrons can be regular
(based on regular polygons) or irregular (based on irregular polygons). Polyhedrons can also be
concave or convex.

One of the most basic and familiar polyhedrons is the cube. A cube is a regular polyhedron,
having six square faces, 12 edges, and eight vertices.
 Octagonal prism

hexagonal prism

Regular Polyhedrons (Platonic Solids)

The five regular solids are a special class of polyhedrons, all of whose faces are identical with
each face being a regular polygon. The platonic solids are:

 Tetrahedron with four equilateral triangle faces.

See the diagram above for an illustration of each of these regular polyhedrons.
What is a Prism?

A prism is any polyhedron that has two matching ends and flat sides. If you cut a prism
anywhere along its length, parallel to an end, its cross-section is the same - you would end up
with two prisms. The sides of a prism are parallelograms - four-sided shapes with two pairs of
sides with equal length.

Antiprisms are similar to regular prisms, their ends match. However the sides of anti-prisms are
made up of triangles and not parallelograms. Antiprisms can become very complex.

What is a Pyramid?

A pyramid is a polyhedron with a polygon base that connects to an apex (top point) with straight
sides.

Although we tend to think of pyramids with a square base, like the ones that the ancient
Egyptians built, they can in fact have any polygon base, regular or irregular. Furthermore, a
pyramid can have an apex in the direct centre of its base, a Right Pyramid, or can have the apex
off centre when it's an Oblique Pyramid.

More Complex Polyhedrons

There are many more types of polyhedra: symmetrical and asymmetrical, concave and convex.

Archimedean solids, for example, are made up of at least two different regular polygons.

The truncated cube (as illustrated) is an Archimedean solid with 14 faces. 6 of the faces are
regular octagons and the other 8 are regular (equilateral) triangles. The shape has 36 edges and
24 vertices (corners).

Three-Dimensional Shapes with Curves

Solid shapes which include a curved or round edge are not polyhedrons. Polyhedrons can only
have straight sides.

Many of the objects around you will include at least some curves. In geometry the most common
curved solids are cylinders, cones, spheres and tori (the plural for torus).

Common Three-Dimensional Shapes with Curves:

Cylinder Cone
A cylinder has the same cross-section from one A cone has a circular or oval base and an apex (or
end to the other. Cylinders have two identical ends vertex). The side of the cone tapers smoothly to
of either a circle or an oval. Although similar, the apex. A cone is similar to a pyramid but distinct
cylinders are not prisms as a prism has (by as a cone has a single curved side and a circular
definition) parallelogram, flat sides. base.

Sphere Torus

Shaped like a ball or a globe a sphere is a Shaped like a ring, a tire or a doughnut, a regular
completely round object. Every point on the ring torus is formed by revolving a smaller circle
surface of a sphere is an equal distance to the around a larger circle. There are also more complex
centre of the sphere. form of tori.

Surface Area

Our page on Calculating Area explains how to work out the area of two-dimensional shapes and
you need to understand these basics in order to calculate the surface area of three-dimensional
shapes.

For three-dimensional shapes, we talk about surface area, to avoid confusion.

You can use your knowledge about the area of two-dimensional shapes to calculate the surface
area of a three-dimensional shape, since each face or side is effectively a two-dimensional shape.

You therefore work out the area of each face, and then add them together.

As with flat shapes, the surface area of a solid is expressed in square units: cm2, inches2, m2 and
so on. You can find more detail about units of measurement on our page Systems of
Measurement.
Examples of Surface Area Calculations

Cube

The surface area of a cube is the area of one face (length x width) multiplied by 6, because all
six faces are the same.

As the face of a cube is a square you only need to take one measurement - the length and width
of a square are, by definition, the same.

One face of this cube is therefore 10 × 10 cm = 100cm2. Multiply by 6, the number of faces on a
cube, and we find that the surface area of this cube is 600cm2.

Other Regular Polyhedrons

Similarly, the surface area of the other regular polyhedrons (platonic solids) can be worked out
by finding the area of one side and then multiplying the answer by the total number of sides - see
the Basic Polyhedrons diagram above.

If the area of one pentagon making up a dodecahedron is 22cm2 then multiply this by the total
number of sides (12) to give the answer 264cm2.

Pyramid

To calculate the surface area of a standard pyramid with four equal triangular sides and a
square base:

First work out the area of the base (square) length × width.

Next work out the area of one side (triangle). Measure the width along the base and then the
height of the triangle (also known as slant length) from the central point on the base to the apex.
You can then either divide you answer by 2 to give you the surface area of one triangle and then
multiply by 4 to give the surface area of all four sides, or simply multiply the surface area of one
triangle by 2.

Finally add the area of the base and sides together to find the total surface area of the pyramid.

To calculate the surface area of other types of pyramid, add together the area of the base
(known as base area) and the area of the sides (lateral area), you may need to measure the sides
individually.

Net Diagrams

A geometric net is a two-dimensional 'pattern' for a three dimensional object. Nets can be helpful
when working out the surface area of a three-dimensional object. In the diagram below you can
see how basic pyramids are constructed, if the pyramid is 'unfolded' you are left with the net.