What Are 3-Dimensional Shapes?
Shapes that are 3-dimensional are all around us! Take a look around you right now. Most things in this world are made up of 3-dimensional shapes. Sometimes we call these 3-D shapes for short.
You may want to know where 3-dimensional shapes get their names before we get started. The word 3-dimensional basically refers to a shape that 'pops out' at you. More specifically, 3-dimensional shapes are not flat. They take up space with how wide they are, how high or long they are, and how deep they are from front to back.
A pencil, ice cube, and ball are all examples of 3-dimensional shapes. For example, you can wrap your fingers around the shape of a pencil in order to draw, and you can hold an ice cube and a ball too. While you could draw a 3-dimensional shape on paper (as you can see in our sample images below), a true 3-D shape can't be flattened.
What Makes Up a 3-Dimensional Shape?
Most 3-D shapes are made up of faces, edges, and vertices.
- The face of a 3-D shape, is basically just the flat part of the shape.
- The edge, is the straight line that separates the faces. Think of it as the edge of a cliff.
- The vertices are the corners. However, when referring to only one corner, we use the word vertex.
 |
The 3-D shape in Picture A has 6 faces, 12 edges, and 8 vertices.
