Liu Hui on the volume of a pyramid - 3.
References Click on any figure to see it enlarged in a separate window.
Rectilinear solids treated by Liu Hui Chapter 5 of the Jiuzhang suanshu is ostensibly concerned with earthworks and the amount of labour needed to build them. The only parts of the chapter which are especially interesting mathematically, however, are those which give algorithms for calculating the volumes of solids. For each of these algorithms, Liu Hui gives a derivation. Below I describe briefly each of the rectilinear solids treated by Liu Hui. The volume of a box, or rectangular parallelopiped, the product of its three dimensions, is implicitly assumed, and Liu Hui makes no attempt to explain it.