The tetrahedron is a very common shape but one that has a significant role in many of the things we take for granted every day. A true tetrahedron is shaped like a pyramid with four faces or sides with three always meeting at a vertex. Regular tetrahedrons have all four sides of the shape equal in size or equilateral, producing one of the Platonic solids. The other four of the five Platonic solids are the cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and the icosahedron. A tetrahedron with different sizes of sides can also occur with seven possible options. All still have three different sides meeting at the vertices but there are different angles provided making them unique in their appearance.
Besides being just an interesting shape for game pieces and building blocks, the tetrahedron is also the shape of different chemical materials. The ammonium ion is tetrahedral in shape as are the components of methane gas. This shape is important in how these ions interact with each other at a molecular level.
The shape of the tetrahedron is also important in electricity and enhancing the capacity and design of different electronic components. It is possible to attach four resistors into a tetrahedron shape, three equidistant at the bottom and one at the top, to calculations on the resistance between any vertices. This is due to the shape of the tetrahedron and the flow of electricity along specific paths in the shape.
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