My daughter, who is in the second grade, brought home
a math worksheet in which one of the questions was the
following:
Which shape am I?
If you looked at me from the side, you would see a
rectangle.
(pictures of a rectangular parallelepiped, a sphere, and a cylinder are given)
From the context of the worksheet, there is one and only one
correct answer for each question. Evidently, the intended
correct answer for this question is the rectangular parallelepiped. However,
I believe that the side view of a cylinder is also a rectangle, but
I wanted to check this with the mathematics community before
complaining to the teacher about it.
So, what is the verdict?
Best Answer
The only way a disc comes to look like a straight line is if your eye is in the same plane as that disc. Since your eye cannot lie in the same plane as both end discs, one of them will have to look a bit ellipsoid.