SOLID, in Philosophy, a body whose parts are firmly connected together, as not easily to give way or slip from each other; in which sense solid stands opposed to fluid.
Geometricians define a solid to be the third species of magnitude, or that which has three dimensions, viz. length, breadth, and thickness or depth.
Solids are commonly divided into regular and irregular. The regular solids are those terminated by regular and
(A) "I have remarked, that after a great fall of rain, the degree of heat in this water is much less; which will account for what Padre Torre says (in his book, intitled Histoire et Phénomènes du Vésuve), that when he tried it in company with Monsieur de la Condamine, the degree of heat, upon Reaumur's thermometer, was 68°.
and equal planes, and are only five in number, viz. the tetrahedron, which consists of four equal triangles; the cube or hexahedron, of six equal squares; the octahedron, of eight equal triangles; the dodecahedron, of twelve; and the icosahedron, of twenty equal triangles.
The irregular solids are almost infinite, comprehending all such as do not come under the definition of regular solids; as the sphere, cylinder, cone, parallelogram, prism, parallelopiped, &c.