Regular-based right pyramids

Pyramid (geometry)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 1-skeleton of pyramid is a wheel graph

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 polygonal
base. A pyramid with an n-sided base will have n +
1 vertices, n + 1 faces, and 2nedges. All pyramids
are self-dual.

Conway polyhedron
notation

Yn

Schlfli symbol

( ) {n}

Faces

n triangles,
1 n-gon

Edges

2n

Vertices

n+1

Symmetry group

Cnv, [1,n], (*nn),

order 2n

Rotation group

Cn, [1,n]+, (nn),

order n

Dual polyhedron

Self-dual

Properties
convex
A right pyramid has its apex directly above
the centroid of its base. Nonright pyramids are
called oblique pyramids. A regular pyramid has a regular polygon base and is usually implied to
be a right pyramid.[1][2]
When unspecified, a pyramid is usually assumed to be a regular square pyramid, like the
physical pyramid structures. A triangle-based pyramid is more often called a tetrahedron.
Among oblique pyramids, like acute and obtuse triangles, a pyramid can be called acute if its apex is
above the interior of the base and obtuse if its apex is above the exterior of the base. A right-angled
pyramid has its apex above an edge or vertex of the base. In a tetrahedron these qualifiers will
change based on which face is considered the base.
Pyramids are a subclass of the prismatoids. Pyramids can be doubled into bipyramids by adding a
second offset point on the other side of the base plane.
Contents

1Right pyramids with a regular base

o

1.1Right Star pyramids

2Right pyramids with an irregular base

3Volume

4Surface area

5n-dimensional pyramids

5.1Polyhedral pyramid

6See also

7References

8External links

Right pyramids with a regular base[edit]

A right pyramid with a regular base has isosceles triangle sides, with symmetry is C nv or [1,n], with
order 2n. It can be given an extended Schlfli symbol ( ) {n}, representing a point, ( ), joined
(orthogonally offset) to a regular polygon, {n}. A join operation creates a new edge between all pairs
of vertices of the two joined figures.
The trigonal or triangular pyramid with all equilateral triangles faces becomes
the regular tetrahedron, one of the Platonic solids. A lower symmetry case of the triangular
pyramid is C3v which has an equilateral triangle base, and 3 identical isosceles triangle sides. The
square and pentagonal pyramids can also be composed of regular convex polygons, in which case
they are Johnson solids.
If all edges of a square pyramid (or any convex polyhedron) are tangent to a sphere so that the
average position of the tangential points are at the center of the sphere, then the pyramid is said to
be canonical, and it forms half of a regular octahedron.
Regular pyramids

Right Star pyramids[edit]

Right pyramids with regular star polygon bases are called star pyramids.[3] For example, the
pentagrammic pyramid has a pentagram base and 5 intersecting triangle sides.

Right pyramids with an irregular base[edit]

Example general right pyramid with apex above the centroid of a base
polygon

A right pyramid can be named as ( )P, where ( ) is the apex point,

is a join operator, and P is a base polygon.
An isosceles triangle right tetrahedron can be written as
( )[( ){ }] as the join of a point to an isosceles triangle base, as
[( )( )]{ } or { }{ } as the join (orthogonal offsets) of two
orthogonal segments, a digonal disphenoid, containing 4 isosceles
triangle faces. It has C1v symmetry from two different base-apex
orientations, and C2v in its full symmetry.
A rectangular right pyramid, written as ( )[{ }{ }], and
a rhombic pyramid, as ( )[{ }+{ }], both have symmetry C2v.
Right pyramids

Rectangular pyramid

Rhombic pyramid

Volume[edit]
See also: Cone (geometry) Volume
The volume of a pyramid (also any cone) is , where b is the area of
the base and h the height from the base to the apex. This works for
any polygon, regular or non-regular, and any location of the apex,
provided that h is measured as the perpendicular distance from

the plane containing the base. In 499 AD Aryabhata,

a mathematician-astronomer from the classical age of Indian
mathematics and Indian astronomy, used this method in
the Aryabhatiya (section 2.6).
The formula can be formally proved using calculus: By similarity,
the linear dimensions of a cross-section parallel to the base
increase linearly from the apex to the base. The scaling factor
(proportionality factor) is , or , where h is the height and y is the
perpendicular distance from the plane of the base to the crosssection. Since the area of any cross-section is proportional to the
square of the shape's scaling factor, the area of a cross-section at
height y is , or since both b and h are constants, . The volume is
given by the integral
The same equation, , also holds for cones with any base. This
can be proven by an argument similar to the one above;
see volume of a cone.
For example, the volume of a pyramid whose base is an nsided regular polygon with side length s and whose height
is h is
The formula can also be derived exactly without calculus for
pyramids with rectangular bases. Consider a unit cube.
Draw lines from the center of the cube to each of the 8
vertices. This partitions the cube into 6 equal square
pyramids of base area 1 and height 1/2. Each pyramid
clearly has volume of 1/6. From this we deduce that
pyramid volume = height base area / 3.
Next, expand the cube uniformly in three directions by
unequal amounts so that the resulting rectangular solid
edges are a, b and c, with solid volume abc. Each of the 6
pyramids within are likewise expanded. And each pyramid
has the same volume abc/6. Since pairs of pyramids have
heights a/2, b/2 and c/2, we see that pyramid volume =
height base area / 3 again.

Surface area[edit]
The surface area of a pyramid is , where B is the base
area, P is the base perimeter, and the slant height ,
where h is the pyramid altitude and r is the inradiusof the
base.

n-dimensional pyramids[edit]
A 2-dimensional pyramid is a triangle, formed by a base
edge connected to a noncolinear point called an apex.
A 4-dimensional pyramid is called a polyhedral pyramid,
constructed by a polyhedron in a 3-space hyperplane of 4space with another point off that hyperplane.
Higher-dimensional pyramids are constructed similarly.

The family of simplices represent pyramids in any

dimension, increasing from triangle, tetrahedron, 5-cell, 5simplex, etc. A n-dimensional simplex has the
minimum n+1 vertices, with all pairs of vertices connected
by edges, all triples of vertices defining faces, all
quadruples of points defining tetrahedral cells, etc.

Polyhedral pyramid[edit]
In 4-dimensional geometry, a polyhedral pyramid is a 4polytope constructed by a base polyhedron cell and
an apex point. The lateral facets are pyramid cells, each
constructed by one face of the base polyhedron and the
apex. The vertices and edges of polyhedral pyramids form
examples of apex graphs, graphs formed by adding one
vertex (the apex) to a planar graph(the graph of the base).
The regular 5-cell (or 4-simplex) is an example of
a tetrahedral pyramid. Uniform polyhedra with circumradii
less than 1 can be make polyhedral pyramids with regular
tetrahedral sides. A polyhedron with v vertices, e edges,
and f faces can be the base on a polyhedral pyramid
with v+1 vertices, e+v edges, f+e faces, and 1+f cells.
A 4D polyhedral pyramid with axial symmetry can be
visualized in 3D with a Schlegel diagram which is a 3D
projection that places the apex at the center of the base
polyhedron.
Equilateral uniform polyhedron-based pyramids (Schlegel diagram)

Symmetry

[1,1,4]

[1,2,3]

[1,8,2+]

[1,3,3]

[1,4,3]

[1,5,3]

Name

( )[( )
{4}]

( )[{ }
{3}]

( )s{2,8}

( ){3,3}

( ){4,3}

( ){3,4}

( ){3,5}

Segmentoch
ora
index[4]

K4.4

K4.7

K4.17

K4.1

K4.26.1

K4.3

K4.84

Height

0.707107

0.790569

0.568527

0.790569

0.500000

0.707107

0.309017

Image
(Base)

Base

Square
pyramid

Triangular
prism

Square
antiprism

Tetrahedro
n

Cube

Octahedro
n

Any convex 4-polytope can be divided into polyhedral

pyramids by adding an interior point and creating one
pyramid from each facet to the center point. This can be
useful for computing volumes.
The 4-dimensional volume of a polyhedral pyramid is 1/4 of
the volume of the base polyhedron times its perpendicular
height, compared to the area of a triangle being 1/2 the
length of the base times the height and the volume of a
pyramid being 1/3 the area of the base times the height.

See also[edit]

Bipyramid

Cone (geometry)

Trigonal pyramid (chemistry)

Frustum

References[edit]
1.

^ William F. Kern, James R Bland,Solid Mensuration

with proofs, 1938, p.46

2.

^ Civil Engineers' Pocket Book: A Reference-book for

Engineers

3.

^ Wenninger, Magnus J. (1974), Polyhedron Models,

Cambridge University Press, p. 50, ISBN 978-0-52109859-5.

4.

^ Convex Segmentochora Dr. Richard Klitzing,

Symmetry: Culture and Science, Vol. 11, Nos. 1-4, 139181, 2000

Icosahedro
n

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Pyramids
(geometry).

Weisstein, Eric W. "Pyramid". MathWorld.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Right pyramid". MathWorld.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Regular pyramid". MathWorld.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Triangular pyramid". MathWorld.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Square pyramid". MathWorld.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Pentagonal pyramid". MathWorld.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Hexagonal pyramid". MathWorld.

Olshevsky, George. "Pyramid". Glossary for

Hyperspace. Archived from the original on 4 February
2007.

The Uniform Polyhedra

Convex polyhedra
tetrahedron
cube
octahedron
dodecahedron
icosahedron
truncated tetrahedron
cuboctahedron
truncated cube
truncated octahedron
rhombicuboctahedron

truncated cuboctahedron
snub cube
icosidodecahedron
truncated dodecahedron
truncated icosahedron
rhombicosidodecahedron
truncated icosidodecahedron
snub dodecahedron
triakis tetrahedron
rhombic dodecahedron
triakis octahedron
tetrakis hexahedron
deltoidal icositetrahedron
disdyakis dodecahedron
pentagonal icositetrahedron
rhombic triacontahedron
triakis icosahedron
pentakis dodecahedron
deltoidal hexecontahedron
disdyakis triacontahedron
pentagonal hexecontahedron
dihedron
hosohedron
prisms
antiprisms
bipyramids
trapezohedra
pyramids
truncated trapezohedra
gyroelongated bipyramid
cupola
bicupola

pyramidal frusta
Degenerate polyhedra are in italics.

Categories:
Polyhedra

Self-dual polyhedra

Prismatoid polyhedra

Pyramids

Pyramids and bipyramids

Geometric shapes

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