geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

, the hexagonal prism is a

prism PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGAD . PRISM collects stored internet ...

with

hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A regular hexagon is de ...

al base. Prisms are

polyhedron In geometry, a polyhedron (: polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional figure with flat polygonal Face (geometry), faces, straight Edge (geometry), edges and sharp corners or Vertex (geometry), vertices. The term "polyhedron" may refer ...

s; this polyhedron has 8

faces The face is the front of the head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect the ...

, 18

edges Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), also known as 2.75G and under various other names, is a 2G digital mobile phone technology for packet switched data transmission. It is a subset of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) on the GS ...

, and 12 vertices..

As a semiregular polyhedron

If faces are all regular, the hexagonal prism is a

semiregular polyhedron In geometry, the term semiregular polyhedron (or semiregular polytope) is used variously by different authors. Definitions In its original definition, it is a polyhedron with regular polygonal faces, and a symmetry group which is transitive on ...

—more generally, a

uniform polyhedron In geometry, a uniform polyhedron has regular polygons as Face (geometry), faces and is vertex-transitive—there is an isometry mapping any vertex onto any other. It follows that all vertices are congruence (geometry), congruent. Uniform po ...

—and the fourth in an infinite set of prisms formed by square sides and two regular polygon caps. It can be seen as a truncated

hexagonal hosohedron In geometry, a hexagon (from Ancient Greek, Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple polygon, simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular h ...

, represented by

Schläfli symbol In geometry, the Schläfli symbol is a notation of the form \ that defines List of regular polytopes and compounds, regular polytopes and tessellations. The Schläfli symbol is named after the 19th-century Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli, wh ...

t. Alternately it can be seen as the

Cartesian product In mathematics, specifically set theory, the Cartesian product of two sets and , denoted , is the set of all ordered pairs where is an element of and is an element of . In terms of set-builder notation, that is A\times B = \. A table c ...

of a regular hexagon and a

line segment In geometry, a line segment is a part of a line (mathematics), straight line that is bounded by two distinct endpoints (its extreme points), and contains every Point (geometry), point on the line that is between its endpoints. It is a special c ...

, and represented by the product ×. The

dual Dual or Duals may refer to: Paired/two things * Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another ** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality *** see more cases in :Duality theories * Dual number, a nu ...

of a hexagonal prism is a

hexagonal bipyramid A hexagonal bipyramid is a polyhedron formed from two hexagonal pyramids joined at their bases. The resulting solid has 12 triangular faces, 8 vertices and 18 edges. The 12 faces are identical isosceles triangles. Although it is face-transiti ...

. The

symmetry group In group theory, the symmetry group of a geometric object is the group of all transformations under which the object is invariant, endowed with the group operation of composition. Such a transformation is an invertible mapping of the amb ...

of a right hexagonal prism is

prismatic symmetry In geometry, dihedral symmetry in three dimensions is one of three infinite sequences of point groups in three dimensions which have a symmetry group that as an abstract group is a dihedral group Dih''n'' (for ''n'' ≥ 2). Types Ther ...

D_

of order 24, consisting of rotation around an axis passing through the regular hexagon bases' center, and reflection across a horizontal plane. As in most prisms, the volume is found by taking the area of the base, with a side length of

a

, and multiplying it by the height

h

, giving the formula:

V = \fraca^2h,

and its surface area is by summing the area of two regular hexagonal bases and the lateral faces of six squares:

S = 3a(\sqrta+2h).

As a parallelohedron

The hexagonal prism is one of the

parallelohedron In geometry, a parallelohedron or Fedorov polyhedron is a convex polyhedron that can be Translation (geometry), translated without rotations to fill Euclidean space, producing a Honeycomb (geometry), honeycomb in which all copies of the polyhed ...

, a polyhedral class that can be translated without rotations in Euclidean space, producing

honeycomb A honeycomb is a mass of Triangular prismatic honeycomb#Hexagonal prismatic honeycomb, hexagonal prismatic cells built from beeswax by honey bees in their beehive, nests to contain their brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae) and stores of honey and pol ...

s; this class was discovered by

Evgraf Fedorov Evgraf Stepanovich Fedorov (, – 21 May 1919) was a Russian mathematician, crystallographer and mineralogist. Fedorov was born in the Russian city of Orenburg. His father was a topographical engineer. The family later moved to Saint Petersb ...

in accordance with his studies of crystallography systems. The hexagonal prism is generated from four line segments, three of them parallel to a common plane and the fourth not. Its most symmetric form is the right prism over a regular hexagon, forming the

hexagonal prismatic honeycomb The triangular prismatic honeycomb or triangular prismatic cellulation is a space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space. It is composed entirely of triangular prisms. It is constructed from a triangular tiling extruded into pr ...

. The hexagonal prism also exists as cells of four prismatic

uniform convex honeycomb In geometry, a convex uniform honeycomb is a uniform polytope, uniform tessellation which fills three-dimensional Euclidean space with non-overlapping convex polyhedron, convex uniform polyhedron, uniform polyhedral cells. Twenty-eight such honey ...

s in 3 dimensions: It also exists as cells of a number of four-dimensional

uniform 4-polytope In geometry, a uniform 4-polytope (or uniform polychoron) is a 4-dimensional polytope which is vertex-transitive and whose cells are uniform polyhedron, uniform polyhedra, and faces are regular polygons. There are 47 non-Prism (geometry), prism ...

s, including:

References

External links

Uniform Honeycombs in 3-Space
VRML models
The Uniform Polyhedra
The Encyclopedia of Polyhedr

*
Hexagonal Prism Interactive Model
-- works in your web browser Prismatoid polyhedra Space-filling polyhedra Zonohedra {{Polyhedron-stub