What are pointy edges?

Pointy edges are sharp parts on things that can poke you if you’re not careful.

Imagine you have a toy block, it’s square and has flat sides, like the ones you stack to build towers. Now, if you take that same block and round off all its corners, it becomes smoother, like a soft pillow. But if you leave the corners as they are, those corners become pointy edges, they’re the parts that can hurt your fingers when you push them.

When something has a sharp corner, that’s what we call a pointy edge. Think of a book, if you open it all the way and look at the corner, it’s very sharp. That’s a pointy edge. If you touch it with your finger, it feels like it wants to poke you!

Some things need pointy edges to work better. Like a knife, it has a really pointy edge, which helps it cut through food easily. A pencil also has a pointy edge at the tip, so it can write on paper without making smudges.

So next time you see something with a sharp corner, remember, that’s a pointy edge!