# What is this 3-D shape called? (sour cream packs; popsicles) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 30, 2007, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180 "2007-04-30T17:04:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180/1 "2007-04-30T17:04:27Z")
It’s the shape used to package small portions of things like sour cream (you get one with a baked potato at Wendy’s); also, some public school frozen orange juice popsicles from my youth. It’s a nifty package: usually one end is perforated; just tear off the end strip and squeeze from the opposite end. The shape is a [bi-?]symmetrical form that’s like two wedges morphing into each other at a 90-degree angle. It’s kinda triangular, and pyramidal, without being either. Does it have a name? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180/2 "2007-04-30T17:11:08Z")
The ice lolly that I immediately thought of that comes in these tubes is the [Calippo](http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c76/thedimholt/060504_calippo.jpg). Googling around that, it seems the industry just tends to call them “calippo-type” or “calippo-style” tubes. I don’t think the shape itself has a name, as such. I propose that it should be called a callipsoid. 🙂 OK, I now see that the [Wendy’s carton](http://wings.interfree.it/html/Bellows.html) is not really the same thing. But that does look a lot like the [pyramid tea bags](http://britishsupermarket.com/graphics/00000001/pg40.jpg) that you can get nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180/3 "2007-04-30T17:13:00Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] The shape is a [bi-?]symmetrical form that’s like two wedges morphing into each other at a 90-degree angle. It’s kinda triangular, and pyramidal, without being either. Does it have a name? [/QUOTE] Is [this](http://www.acatinthekitchen.com/photo/cardamommilk.jpg) what you mean? As far as the shape goes, I mean. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180/4 "2007-04-30T17:14:54Z")
It sounds like a stretched Tetrahedron. a Regular Tetrahedron is the shape you generate by taking equilateral triangles and putting them together so that three faces meet at each corner. Each edge will be opposite an edge that sits at 90 degrees to the first edge. It’s the shape you can easily generate by pinching off a tuve, filling a portion of the tube with material, then pinching the other end off along a line that’s at right angles to the first pinch-off. A nifty way to generate a volume that’s not easily squeezed flat. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180/5 "2007-04-30T17:16:06Z")
What Cal said. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180/6 "2007-04-30T17:17:27Z")
I found this site [here](http://www.idmessage.se/id/tetrapakmoma/). > [@](#): > > The Tetra Classic package, originally known simply as the ‘Tetra Pak’ when first introduced in 1952 - because of its tetrahedral shape Must be cool if it is in the MoMA. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180/7 "2007-04-30T17:19:22Z")
**Adam yax** just beat me to it, but this is indeed the original “tetrahedral paper carton” that gave its name to TetraPak. [Link - see bottom of page](http://www.design-council.org.uk/en/About-Design/Design-Techniques/Materials/Eleven-examples/). The Calippo tubes are just a very elongated form of this, really, but with the short end formed into a cylindrical opening that is then capped with a foil lid. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180/8 "2007-04-30T17:42:19Z")
Gad, I love these boards. Just re-upped last week and I’ve already got my money’s worth. **adam yax** ’s linked pic is exactly what I had in mind. Sorry I’ve been absent from this thread, guys, but I’ve been looking through Google Images for a pic (and came up empty). “Stretched tetrahedron,” eh? Now, that’s the sort of geeky trivia I love to drop into casual conversation… Thanks, all! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180/9 "2007-04-30T19:10:28Z")
If you want to be a little more precise, you could call it an isoceles tetrahedron, since all of the faces are isocelese triangles. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-3-d-shape-called-sour-cream-packs-popsicles/402180/10 "2007-04-30T20:05:35Z")
Or more precisely still, iso **s** celes tetrahedrons. (I don’t know shapes, but I do know spelling!) 😃