In solid geometry, a wedge is a polyhedron defined by two triangles and three trapezoid faces. A wedge has five faces, nine edges, and six vertices.
A wedge is a subclass of the prismatoids with the base and opposite ridge in two parallel planes.
A wedge can also be classified as a digonal cupola.
Wedges can be created from decomposition of other polyhedra. For instance, the dodecahedron can be divided into a central cube with 6 wedges covering the cube faces. The orientations of the wedges are such that the triangle and trapezoid faces can connect and form a regular pentagon.
A triangular prism is a special case wedge with the two triangle faces being translationally congruent.
Comparisons:
- A wedge is a parallelepiped where a face has collapsed into a line.
- A quadrilaterally-based pyramid is a wedge in which one of the edges between two trapezoid faces has collapsed into a point.
For a rectangle based wedge, the volume is
where the base rectangle is a by b, c is the apex edge length parallel to a, and h the height from the base rectangle to the apex edge.
Famous quotes containing the word wedge:
“When we understand that man is the only animal who must create meaning, who must open a wedge into neutral nature, we already understand the essence of love. Love is the problem of an animal who must find life, create a dialogue with nature in order to experience his own being.”
—Ernest Becker (1924–1974)