What are orthogonal projections?

Orthogonal projections are like shining a flashlight straight down on a shape to see its shadow, but not just any shadow, a special one that helps us understand it better.

Imagine you have a toy box full of blocks stacked in different ways. If you shine a flashlight directly from above, the shadow they make on the floor is their orthogonal projection, it's like looking at them from straight up and down.

Think of it as taking a photo of your blocks from directly above, like you're floating high up in the air. You don’t see the sides or the front, just what’s on top. That flat picture is the projection of all those blocks. It helps you understand how they’re arranged without seeing them from every angle.

If you know the shape of the shadow (or projection), you can figure out a lot about the real object. Like if you see a square shadow, maybe it's a cube or just a flat square, but if you have more shadows from different angles, you can guess what the whole block tower looks like in 3D!