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How to find the volume of a cylinder

Although a cylinder is technically not a prism, it shares many of the properties of a prism. Like
prisms, the volume is found by multiplying the area of one end of the cylinder (base) by its
height.
Since the end (base) of a cylinder is a circle, the area of that circle is given by the formula :

Multiplying by the height h we get


where:
is Pi, approximately 3.142
r is the radius of the circular end of the cylinder
h height of the cylinder

Volume of a sphere
Definition: The number of cubic units that will exactly fill a
sphere .
Try this Drag the orange dot to adjust the radius of the
sphere and note how the volume changes.

The volume enclosed by a sphere is given by the formula


Where r is the radius of the sphere. In the figure
above, drag the orange dot to change the radius of the sphere and note
how the formula is used to calculate the volume. Since the 4, 3 and pi
are constants, this simplifies to approximately
This formula was discovered over two thousand years ago by the Greek
philosopher Archimedes. He also realized that the volume of a sphere is
exactly two thirds the volume of its circumscribed cylinder, which is
the smallest cylinder that can contain the sphere.

Volume of a pyramid
Definition: The number of cubic units that will exactly fill a
pyramid.
Try this Drag the orange dots to adjust the base size and height
of the pyramid and note how the volume changes.

The volume enclosed by a pyramid is one third of the base area times the
perpendicular height. As a formula:

Where b is the area of

the base of the pyramid and h is its height. The height must be measured
as the vertical distance from the apex down to the base.

Volume of a cone
Definition: The number of cubic units that will exactly fill a cone .
Try this Drag the orange dots to adjust the radius and height of the cone and note how the volume
changes.

The volume enclosed by a cone is given by the formula

Where r is the radius of the circular base

of the cone and h is its height. In the figure above, drag the orange dots to change the radius and height of the cone
and note how the formula is used to calculate the volume .
Relation to a cylinder

Recall that the volume of a cylinder is


If you compare the two formulae, you will see one is exactly a third of the other. This means that the volume of a
cone is exactly one third the volume of the cylinder with the same radius and height.
Such a cylinder is the "circumscribed cylinder" of the cone - the smallest cylinder that can contain the cone. In the
figure above, select "Show cylinder" to see the cone embedded in its circumscribed cylinder.

How to find the volume of a triangular prism


Recall that a prism has two congruent, parallel faces called the bases of the prism. The volume of any prism can be
found by multiplying the area of one of the bases by its height. In the case of a triangular prism, each base is a
triangle.
As a formula

where a is the area of one triangular end face, and h is the height.

There are various ways to find the area of the triangle, use whichever method work with what you are given. In the
above animation, the three sides are given, so here you would use Heron's Formula. But any method will do - below
is a list of methods:

Methods for finding the triangle area


If you know:

Use this

Base and altitude

"Half base times height" method

All 3 sides

Heron's Formula

Two sides and included angle

Side-angle-side method

x,y coordinates of the vertices

Area of a triangle- by formula (Coordinate Geometry)


Area of a triangle - box method (Coordinate Geometry)

The triangle is equilateral

Area of an equilateral triangle

Prism Formula
An prism is a polyhedron with 2 polygonal bases parallel to each other. The two polygonal bases are
joined by lateral faces. The number of lateral faces are equal to the number of sides in the base. The
lateral faces in a prism are perpendicular to the polygonal bases. Mostly the lateral faces are
rectangle. In some cases the faces may be parallelogram.

The Prism Formula in general is given as,

urface area of a pyramid


Definition: The number of square units that will exactly cover the surface of a pyramid.
Try this Drag the orange dots to adjust the base size and height of the pyramid and note how the
area changes.

The total surface area of any polyhedron, is sum of the surface areas of each face.
In the case of a right pyramid, the side faces are all the same, so we can simply find the area of one and multiply by

the number of faces. Once we add the area of the base, we have the total surface area.
The base

In the figure above, the base is a square. So to find its area we multiply the side length by itself. The base however
can be any polygon. To find the area of a polygon see Area of a regular polygon.
In the figure above, click on 'reset'. The base side length is 10, so since the base is a square in this example, the base
area is 102 or 100.
The sides

The sides of a pyramid are triangles. There are various ways to find the area of triangles (see Area of triangles.) We
find the area of one face, then multiply by the number of faces.
In the figure above press 'reset'. We see from the front face that the base of the triangle is 10. We are also given the
height* of the triangle - 11. Recall that the area of a triangle is half the base times height, so each face has an area
of 55. (half of 11 times 10). The total for the four faces is 220. (4 times 55).
*This is also called the "slant height" of the pyramid - to distinguish it from the perpendicular height.
Total Area
So the total surface area of the above pyramid is
Area of the base 100
Area of the four faces = 4 times 55 220
TOTAL 320
As a formula

Since the base of a pyramid can be any polygon, and you may be given various different measurements, it's best to
follow the method above to find the area. But in the particular case of a right square pyramid with the base side and
slant height given, the area is given by the formula
is the slant height.

Where b is the side length of the base, and h

By combining the 4 and the 2, this simplifies a little to


Derivation of the surface area of a cylinder
See also: Surface area of a cylinder
Try this Drag the orange dot to the left to "unroll" the cylinder.

The surface area of a cylinder can be found by breaking it down into three parts:

The two circles that make up the ends of the cylinder.

The side of the cylinder, which when "unrolled" is a rectangle

In the figure above, drag the orange dot to the left as far as it will go. You can see that the
cylinder is made up of two circular disks and a rectangle that is like the label unrolled off a
soup can.

The area of each end disk can be found from the radius r of the circle.
The area of a circle is r2, so the combined area of the two disks is twice that, or2r
(See Area of a circle).

The area of the rectangle is the width times height.


The width is the height h of the cylinder, and the length is the distance around the end
circles. This is the circumference of the circle and is 2r. Thus the rectangle's area is 2
h.

Combining these parts we get the final formula:


where:
is Pi, approximately 3.142
r is the radius of the cylinder
h height of the cylinder

Calculator

By factoring 2r from each term we can simplify this to

Surface area of a right prism


b= area of a base
p= perimeter of a
base
h= height of the
prism

Try this Change the height and dimensions of the triangular prism by dragging
the orange dots . Note how the surface area is calculated.

A right prism is composed of a set of flat surfaces .

The two base are congruent polygons.

The lateral faces (or sides) are rectangles.

The total surface area is the sum of these.


Bases

Each base is a polygon. In the figure above it is a regular pentagon, but it can be any regular or
irregular polygon. To find the area of the base polygons, see Area of a regular polygon and
Area of an irregular polygon. Since there are two bases, this is doubled and accounts for the
"2b" term in the equation above.
Lateral faces

Each lateral face (side) of a right prism is a rectangle. One side is the height of the prism, the
other the length of that side of the base .

Therefore, the front left face of the prism above is its height times width or
The total area of the faces is therefore
If we factor out the 'h' term from the

expression we get
Note that the expression in
the parentheses is the perimeter (p) of the base, hence we can write the final area

formula as
Regular prisms

If the prism is regular, the bases are regular polygons. and so the perimeter is 'ns' where s is the

side length and n is the number of sides. In this case the surface area formula simplifies to
b= area of a base
n= number of sides of a base
s= length of sides of a base
h= height of the prism

The surface area of a cylinder can be found by breaking it down into three parts:

The two circles that make up the ends of the cylinder.

The side of the cylinder, which when "unrolled" is a rectangle

In the figure above, drag the orange dot to the left as far as it will go. You can see that the
cylinder is made up of two circular disks and a rectangle that is like the label unrolled off a
soup can.

The area of each end disk can be found from the radius r of the circle.
The area of a circle is r2, so the combined area of the two disks is twice
that, or2r2.
(See Area of a circle).

The area of the rectangle is the width times height.


The width is the height h of the cylinder, and the length is the distance
around the end circles. This is the circumference of the circle and is 2r
Thus the rectangle's area is 2r h.

Combining these parts we get the final formula:


where:
is Pi, approximately 3.142
r is the radius of the cylinder
h height of the cylinder

Calculator

By factoring 2r from each term we can simplify this to

Recall that a cone can be broken down into two parts - the top part with slanted sides, and the
circular disc making the base. We can find the total surface area by adding these together.

The base is a circle of radius r. The area of as circle is given by


more, see Area of a circle.

The top section has an area given by


is the slant height.
See also Derivation of cone area.

where r is the radius at the base, and s

The slant height is the distance along the cone surface from the top to the bottom rim. If you
are given the perpendicular height, you can find the slant height using the Pythagorean
Theorem. For more see Slant height of a cone.

By adding these together we get the final formula:


This can be simplified by
combining some terms, but we usually keep it this way because sometimes we want the area of
each piece separately.

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