A triangular prism is a three-dimensional geometric shape that consists of two triangular bases and three rectangular lateral faces. To understand how many vertices a triangular prism has, we can break it down as follows:
- The prism has two triangular bases, and each triangle has three vertices.
- This means that the two triangular bases together contribute a total of 6 vertices (3 vertices from the top triangle and 3 from the bottom triangle).
In total, a triangular prism has 6 vertices.
To visualize this better, picture a triangular slice of cake where the top and bottom are triangular, and the sides are made of straight edges. The points where the edges meet the base and the top triangles form the vertices. Hence, counting these points gives us the total of 6 vertices.