A prismatic surface is a surface generated by all the lines that are parallel to a given line and intersect a broken line that is not in the same plane as the given line. The broken line is the directrix of the surface; the parallel lines are its generators (or elements). If the broken line is closed (i.e. a closed polygon), then the surface is a closed prismatic surface.
With regards to crystallography, a prismatic surface is a single face of a prismatic form, which is an open form consisting of three, four, or six identical faces related by a symmetry operator.
Famous quotes containing the words prismatic and/or surface:
“Bribed with a little sunlight and a few prismatic tints, we bless our Maker, and stave off his wrath with hymns.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There’s something tragic in the fate of almost every person—it’s just that the tragic is often concealed from a person by the banal surface of life.... A woman will complain of indigestion and not even know that what she means is that her whole life has been shattered.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)