Table of Contents
What is a Prism and a Cylinder?
A prism is a solid figure with two congruent, parallel, triangular bases and rectangular sides. A cylinder is a solid figure with two circular bases and a rectangle connecting the bases.
Types of Prism
There are six types of prism: right triangular prism, rectangular prism, square prism, equilateral triangular prism, scalene triangular prism, and hexagonal prism.
A right triangular prism has a triangular base and three rectangular sides. The height is the length of the triangle’s base.
A rectangular prism has a rectangular base and six rectangular sides. The height is the length of the rectangle’s base.
A square prism has a square base and four square sides. The height is the length of the side of the square.
An equilateral triangular prism has an equilateral triangular base and six triangular sides. The height is the length of the side of the equilateral triangle.
A scalene triangular prism has a scalene triangular base and three scalene triangular sides. The height is the length of the side of the scalene triangle.
A hexagonal prism has a hexagonal base and six hexagonal sides. The height is the length of the side of the hexagon.
How a Cylinder Differentiates from a Prism
A prism is a polyhedron with two congruent, parallel, triangular bases and rectangular sides. A cylinder is a prism with a circular base.
Is a Cylinder a Prism
A prism is a polyhedron with two congruent, parallel faces called bases. The other faces are triangular and are all the same size. A cylinder is not a prism because it does not have two congruent, parallel faces.
Circular Cylinders
A circular cylinder is a hollow cylinder with a circular cross-section. The circular cylinder has a radius and a height. The volume of a circular cylinder is , where is the radius and is the height. The surface area of a circular cylinder is , where is the radius and is the height.
Prisms and Prism-Like Figures
A prism is a polyhedron with two congruent, parallel, congruent bases that are equilateral triangles. The other sides are parallelograms.
A prism-like figure is a polyhedron that has two congruent, parallel, congruent bases that are not necessarily equilateral triangles. The other sides are parallelograms.
Rectangular Prisms
A rectangular prism is a six-sided prism with two rectangular bases. It has six faces (front, back, top, bottom, left and right), twelve edges (six top, six bottom) and eight vertices (four top, four bottom).
