3-dimensional shapes

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3-dimensional (3D) shapes are solid shapes. They have 3 dimensions - , and .

Box of Yummy Flakes showing length, width and height

Vertices, edges and faces

3D shapes have faces, edges and vertices.

Pyramidal chocolate bar with edge, face and vertex labelled

A face is a flat surface.
An edge is where two faces meet.
A vertex is a corner where edges meet. The plural is vertices.

A prism is a 3D shape with a uniform cross-section. This means that you would see the same shape no matter where you cut through the shape (parallel to the ends). The two end faces of a prism are the same shapes, and the other faces are rectangles.

A view of of a triangular prism and its cross-section

A pyramid has a polygon as its base and the rest of its faces are triangles that meet at the same vertex.

Here are the most common 3D shapes.

Name	Faces	Edges	Vertices
Cube	6 (all squares)	12	8
Square-based pyramid	5	8	5
Triangular-based pyramid	4	6	4
Cuboid	6 (all rectangles)	12	8

Name	Cube
Faces	6 (all squares)
Edges	12
Vertices	8

Name	Square-based pyramid
Faces	5
Edges	8
Vertices	5

Name	Triangular-based pyramid
Faces	4
Edges	6
Vertices	4

Name	Cuboid
Faces	6 (all rectangles)
Edges	12
Vertices	8

Four 3D shapes that include a cube, a square-based pyramid, a triangular-based pyramid and a cuboid.

Three 3D shapes that include a cylinder, a cone and a sphere.

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3-dimensional shapes - AQA3-dimensional shapes

3-dimensional shapes

Vertices, edges and faces

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