Geometry

Frustums: Not Frustrating but Fascinating

We’ve looked in the past at volumes and surface areas of familiar geometric shapes like spheres, pyramids, and cones; but more can be done. If we cut parallel to the base of a pyramid or cone, the result is called a frustum (no, not a frustrum!). Let’s derive some formulas, which will be remarkably simple.

Geometric and Algebraic Meaning of Determinants

A recent question led me to look back in the Ask Dr. Math archives for questions about the definition and deeper meaning of determinants. Next week, we’ll see another old question for additional background, followed by the new question.

What are Length and Width?

One of the recent discussions I showed last week dealt with the meaning of length, and I promised more about that. Here we will look at some older questions about the ambiguity of words  like length, width, depth, and height.

Clarifying Definitions: Triangle, Rectangle, Circle

(A new question of the week) Several recent questions involved details about definitions of geometrical objects, so I thought I’d group them together, because each is relatively short. We’ll be looking at the definitions of triangles (do we need to say “exactly three sides”?), rectangles (did Euclid use an exclusive definition?), and circles (can the …

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The Book Stacking Problem

(An archive question of the week) A recent question asked about a well-known problem about stacking books (or cards, or dominoes) so that the top one extends beyond the base, giving a link to one of many explanations of it – but one, like many, that doesn’t quite fill in all the details. Doctor Rick …

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