How is the volume of this pyramid obvious?

618 Views Asked by At

The corner of a unit cube is chopped off such that the cut runs through the three vertices adjacent to the vertex of the chosen corner. The chopped of part is a pyramid. The source says the volume of the pyramid is obviously $\frac16$. I don't understand how this is obvious. Can someone help me visualize this?
I don't want a proper proof because I can also do that ie find the area of base and height and volume is $\frac13$ × base area × height.

I want someone to help me visualize the result as to why this is obvious that the volume of the chopped off pyramid is $\frac16$th of the volume of the cube.

2

There are 2 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

The $\sim$ symbols indicate equivalences in volume due to Cavalieri's principle. The $\cong$ symbols indicate congruences; the solids in the bottom row are the chopped-off pyramids of the question. Thus half a cube has the volume of three such pyramids, and the full cube has the volume of six.

0
On

Cut the cube orthogonally along the diagonal of the top horizontal face. You get two equal prisms having the same base and the same height of the pyramid, so its volume is one third of the volume of the prism which is half the cube, so the pyramid is one sixth of the cube.

Hope it is useful