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Concept
Frustum
Summary
In geometry, a frustum; (: frusta or frustums) is the portion of a solid (normally a pyramid or a cone) that lies between two parallel planes cutting this 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.
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).
In computer graphics, the viewing frustum is the three-dimensional region which is visible on the screen. It is formed by a clipped pyramid; in particular, frustum culling is a method of hidden-surface determination.
In the aerospace industry, a frustum is the fairing between two stages of a multistage rocket (such as the Saturn V), which is shaped like a truncated cone.
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.
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 (1850 BC):
where a and b are the base and top side lengths, and h 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":
where B1 and B2 are the base and top areas, and h1 and h2 are the perpendicular heights from the apex to the base and top planes.
Official source
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