This is a video I really wanted to post because it explains the difference between a polygon and a polyhedron in less than 2 minutes. I hope you find it super helpful!
Looking at 3D geometry is interesting. Well, at least I think so since I can't draw for the life of me. In this post I'll break down geometry that comes in three dimensions. Simple closed surface: has exactly one interior, no holes, and is hollow. An example of this would be a sphere.
Polyhedron: a simple, closed surface made up of polygonal faces. An example of this would be a soccer ball.
See how the ball is made up of a whole bunch of hexagons and pentagons?
Prism: a polyhedron in which two congruent faces (bases) lie in parallel planes and the other faces (lateral faces) are bounded by parallelograms. The name of the prism starts with the name of the bases.
For example:
Hexagonal Prism
Octagonal Prism
Triangular Prism
Not too bad so far, right? Stick with me!
Pyramids: Polyhedron determined by a polygon and a point not in the plane of the polygon. Just like the prism, the name of the pyramid is determined by the shape of the base.
Regular polyhedra: a convex polyhedron whose faces are identical regular polygons.
Examples:
Cylinder: a simple, closed surface that is NOT a polyhedron. Has two simple closed curves called bases and a lateral surface.
Cone: the union of line segments connecting to a point.
The topic of quadrilaterals is pretty big, so it gets its own post. A quadrilateral is simply a four-sided polygon. Four sides. Four angles. And yes.... we're still talking about polygons! :)
It's important to note that the measure of the interior angles of a quadrilateral is 360°.
For example, this quadrilateral is a rectangle:
Each angle (a,b,c,d) is 90°.
90°+90°+90°+90°=360°
Does that make sense so far?
Unlike other polygons, quadrilaterals are put into a hierarchy. Here's a map to explain what I mean:
Although they are all 4-sided quadrilaterals, they are put into categories based on different properties. The kite has no pairs of parallel sides. The trapezoid has one pair of parallel sides. The parallelogram, rectangle, rhombus, and square all have two pairs of parallel sides. You should note that the rectangle and square are made up of right angles.
A polygon is a simple, closed curve with sides that are line segments. A regular polygon means that all sides and angles are congruent - exactly the same! This is a simple and helpful table to help you sort out the different kinds of polygons!
This is an amazing video that really breaks down polygons!
The basic building blocks of geometry are points, lines, and planes. A point is the most fundamental object in geometry. It is represented by a dot and named by a capital letter.
These are points C, M, Q
Types of Lines: Line: has no thickness and extends forever in two directions
Collinear points: points on the same line
Line segment:a connected piece of a line. It has two endpoints and is named by its endpoints. Sometimes, the symbol – written on top of two letters is used to denote the segment.
This is line segment CD
Ray: a piece of a line, except that it has only one endpoint and continues forever in one direction
Intersecting lines: lines with exactly one point in common
Skew lines: two nonparallel lines in space that do not intersect
ST and UV are skew lines
Concurrent lines: three of more lines that intersect in the same point
lines l, m, n are intersect point p
Parallel lines: coplanar lines that have no points in common
Perpendicular lines: two lines that intersect and form right angles
A plane may be considered as an infinite set of points forming a connected flat surface extending infinitely far in all directions. A plane has infinite length, infinite width, and zero height (or thickness). It is usually represented in drawings by a four‐sided figure. A single capital letter is used to denote a plane.