Let be the area of the lower base, the area of the upper base, the area of the midsection, and the altitude. Then as first formulated by Ernst Ferdinand August,
(Kern and Bland 1948, pp. 76-77). This result is known as the prismatoid formula, or sometimes the prismatoid theorem. However, since the latter term is also used for a theorem about the decomposition of a prismatoid (Kern and Bland 1948, pp. 121-130), the term "theorem" is best not applied to the formula.
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