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How Are Cones and Pyramids Alike?
Cones
A cone is a figure that has a circle or ellipse as its base, and a point as its top.
Familiar things that are shaped like cones are a wizard’s hat and the wafer of an ice cream cone.
Think About This
Take a look around your house. Can you find anything that is conical?
Conical objects can have a circle or an ellipse as its base.
Examples of conical things: A Christmas tree, a carrot, your sharpened pencil, and the wafer of an ice cream cone.
Pyramids
The big difference between a pyramid and a cone is the shape of the base. The base of a pyramid is always a polygon.
The walls of a pyramid are triangles. The tops of these triangles meet at a point at the top of the pyramid.
Think About This
Think hard. Can you come up with anything shaped like a pyramid?
Remember that the bases of the objects need to be polygons.
Examples of different pyramids: The roof of a house, a “Toblerone”, the pyramids of Egypt.
A pyramid with a base shaped like a triangle is called a tetrahedron, meaning “four-sided.”
Think About This
Have you ever seen a traffic cone? It has the shape of a cone, and it’s usually orange. They’re often used when work is being done on a road, to make it easier for the drivers to see the workers. They’re called traffic cones because they have the shape of a cone.
Think About This
