Frustum

In geometry, a Template:Langnf;Template:Efn (Template:Plural form: frusta or frustums) is the portion of a solid (normally a pyramid or a cone) that lies between two parallel planes cutting the solid. In the case of a pyramid, the base faces are polygonal and the side faces are trapezoidal. A right frustum is a right pyramid or a right cone truncated perpendicularly to its axis; otherwise, it is an oblique frustum. In a truncated cone or truncated pyramid, the truncation plane is Template:Em necessarily parallel to the cone's base, as in a frustum. If all its edges are forced to become of the same length, then a frustum becomes a prism (possibly oblique or/and with irregular bases).

Elements, special cases, and related concepts

A frustum's axis is that of the original cone or pyramid. A frustum is circular if it has circular bases; it is right if the axis is perpendicular to both bases, and oblique otherwise.

The height of a frustum is the perpendicular distance between the planes of the two bases.

Cones and pyramids can be viewed as degenerate cases of frusta, where one of the cutting planes passes through the apex (so that the corresponding base reduces to a point). The pyramidal frusta are a subclass of prismatoids.

Two frusta with two congruent bases joined at these congruent bases make a bifrustum.

Formulas

Volume

The formula for the volume of a pyramidal square frustum was introduced by the ancient Egyptian mathematics in what is called the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, written in the 13th dynasty (Template:Circa):

$V=\frac{h}{3}(a^2+ab+b^2),$

where Template:Mvar and Template:Mvar are the base and top side lengths, and Template:Mvar is the height.

The Egyptians knew the correct formula for the volume of such a truncated square pyramid, but no proof of this equation is given in the Moscow papyrus.

The volume of a conical or pyramidal frustum is the volume of the solid before slicing its "apex" off, minus the volume of this "apex":

$V=\frac{h_1{B}_1-h_2{B}_2}{3},$

where Template:Math and Template:Math are the base and top areas, and Template:Math and Template:Math are the perpendicular heights from the apex to the base and top planes.

Considering that

$\frac{B_1}{h_1^2}=\frac{B_2}{h_2^2}=\frac{\sqrt{B_1{B}_2}}{h_1{h}_2}=\alpha ,$

the formula for the volume can be expressed as the third of the product of this proportionality, $\alpha$, and of the difference of the cubes of the heights Template:Math and Template:Math only:

$V=\frac{h_1\alpha h_1^2-h_2\alpha h_2^2}{3}=\alpha \frac{h_1^3-h_2^3}{3}.$

By using the identity Template:Math, one gets:

$V=(h_1-h_2)\alpha \frac{h_1^2+h_1{h}_2+h_2^2}{3},$

where Template:Math is the height of the frustum.

Distributing $\alpha$ and substituting from its definition, the Heronian mean of areas Template:Math and Template:Math is obtained:

$\frac{B_1+\sqrt{B_1{B}_2}+B_2}{3};$

the alternative formula is therefore:

$V=\frac{h}{3}(B_1+\sqrt{B_1{B}_2}+B_2).$

Heron of Alexandria is noted for deriving this formula, and with it, encountering the imaginary unit: the square root of negative one.

In particular:

• The volume of a circular cone frustum is:

$V=\frac{\pi h}{3}(r_1^2+r_1{r}_2+r_2^2),$

where Template:Math and Template:Math are the base and top radii.

• The volume of a pyramidal frustum whose bases are regular Template:Mvar-gons is:

$V=\frac{nh}{12}(a_1^2+a_1{a}_2+a_2^2)\cot \frac{\pi }{n},$

where Template:Math and Template:Math are the base and top side lengths.

Pyramidal frustum

Pyramidal frustum

Surface area

File:CroppedCone.svg

Conical frustum

File:Tronco cono 3D.stl

3D model of a conical frustum.

For a right circular conical frustum the slant height $s$ is Template:Bi the lateral surface area is Template:Bi and the total surface area is Template:Bi where r₁ and r₂ are the base and top radii respectively.

Examples

File:Rolo-Candies-US.jpg

Rolo brand chocolates approximate a right circular conic frustum, although not flat on top.

• On the back (the reverse) of a United States one-dollar bill, a pyramidal frustum appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, surmounted by the Eye of Providence.
• Ziggurats, step pyramids, and certain ancient Native American mounds also form the frustum of one or more pyramids, with additional features such as stairs added.
• Chinese pyramids.
• The John Hancock Center in Chicago, Illinois is a frustum whose bases are rectangles.
• The Washington Monument is a narrow square-based pyramidal frustum topped by a small pyramid.
• The viewing frustum in 3D computer graphics is a virtual photographic or video camera's usable field of view modeled as a pyramidal frustum.
• In the English translation of Stanislaw Lem's short-story collection The Cyberiad, the poem Love and tensor algebra claims that "every frustum longs to be a cone".
• Buckets and typical lampshades are everyday examples of conical frustums.
• Drinking glasses and some space capsules are also some examples.

• File:Garsų Gaudyklė, Gintaro ilanka, Neringa, Litva 01.jpg

  Sound Catcher, Neringa, Lithuania

  Sound Catcher: a wooden structure in Lithuania.
• Valençay cheese
• Rolo candies

See also

• Spherical frustum

External links

• Derivation of formula for the volume of frustums of pyramid and cone (Mathalino.com)
• Paper models of frustums (truncated pyramids)
• Paper model of frustum (truncated cone)
• Design paper models of conical frustum (truncated cones)