Flat shapes such as squares and octagons have two dimensions and can be easily drawn on paper.
Solids objects such as cubes and prisms occur in three dimensions and are difficult to draw on paper.
Three examples of such solids are shown below.
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cuboid
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triangular prism
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square-based pyramid
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Solids such as these can be described by the number of faces, edges and vertices they have. A face is a flat surface |
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12 edges
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9 edges
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8 edges
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6 faces
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5 faces
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5 faces
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8 vertices
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6 vertices
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5 vertices
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Nets
A net is a pattern in two dimensions which, when cut out and folded, will make a solid figure.
Cuboid
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Net of a cuboid
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Pyramid
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Views of Solids
Solids can be viewed from top, front, back and sides.
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For a triangular prism |
View from top
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View from front
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View from back
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View from side
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Isometric drawings
Isometric graph paper, which is made up of triangles, instead of the usual squares, can be used to draw views of three dimensional objects. All of the dots on isometric paper are the same distance apart.
e.g. An isometric drawing of the cuboid is shown below. 
