Shapes and solids · Year 2
In Year 2 you learn: sides and corners of 2D shapes; faces, edges and vertices; pentagons, hexagons and octagons.
Shapes are everywhere: in buildings, packaging, road signs and nature. A 2D shape is flat and is named by its number of sides; a 3D solid takes up space and is described by its faces, edges and vertices (corners).
Key facts
- Faces are flat surfaces, edges are where two faces meet, vertices are corners.
- A cube and a cuboid each have 6 faces, 12 edges and 8 vertices.
- A prism has the same cross-section all the way along; a pyramid comes to a point (apex).
- For solids with flat faces: faces + vertices − edges = 2 (Euler’s rule).
Worked examples
Example 1
How many faces, edges and vertices does a triangular prism have?
Answer: 5 faces, 9 edges, 6 vertices
Example 2
A prism has ends that are octagons. How many edges does it have?
Answer: 24 edges