Excuse me sir, your voxels are showing.

This occurred to me today, as I listened to a podcast at my day job, and the word "voxel" was mentioned, and explained to someone on the show.

Let's play a game.

pixel --> "picture element"
voxel --> "volumetric pixel" or "volumetric picture element"

But 2-dimensional  is to picture as 3-dimensional is to .....volumetric picture?

That just doesn't feel right. Imagine saying, "Hey Sven, that's a nice volumetric picture of The Battle of Gettysburg you built in your dining room, how did you get your wife to agree to that?".

I submit that 2D is to picture as 3D is to model. I don't remember what I got on my verbal SAT, other than it was respectable, and surprising to linguistically challenged dude like myself, but I think that would pass as a feasible answer.

I'd like to propose that henceforth, a three-dimensional counterpart to the pixel be known as a moxel, "model element".

They don't call me Pedantite for nothin'

--P

[UPDATE] After they read this post, ETS contacted me to inform me they are retroactively reducing my verbal SAT score.