ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Triangular prism

A triangular prism is like a toy block with a triangle on each end and rectangles for its sides. Think of a rectangle-shaped box, but instead of square ends, it has triangle-shaped ends. It's like a sandwich with two pieces of bread that are triangles and the filling in between is a rectangle.

Imagine a piece of paper, fold it in half so it becomes a rectangular prism. Now, take scissors and cut along the fold, so you end up with two equal triangles and a piece of paper that looks like a rectangle. This is what a triangular prism looks like when it is unfolded.

Now, imagine you have Lego pieces that are triangle shaped and some that are rectangular. If you stack them on top of each other, you can create a triangular prism! It's kind of like building a tower, but with a triangular base and rectangular sides.

The cool thing about a triangular prism is that it has two identical triangle-shaped ends and three rectangles in the middle that are equal in size. This means that if you wanted to find the volume of a triangular prism, you would just take the area of the triangle at one end and multiply it by the length of the rectangular sides in between!

So, if you ever come across a triangular prism in real life or in math class, don't be intimidated. Just remember that it's like a rectangular sandwich with triangular bread and you can find its volume by multiplying the area of one of the triangular end pieces by the length of the rectangular sides!