This section presents geometric properties, illustrates identifying shapes in applications, and illustrates breaking down complex shapes into simple ones.
This section defines the two properties of interest and provides the formulae for some common shapes. Memorizing all of the formulae is not likely useful: in a job you will be able to look them up. However, anything you use a lot (e.g., prisms and spheres) is worth memorizing.
Use this section to learn to identify which measurement is used in each part of a formula and how to determine those from diagrams or descriptions of shapes. The next section will illustrate using these properties in applications.
The surface area of a 3D shape is the cummulative area of all the 2D areas of the shape. You can think of it as the amount of paint needed to cover the object. The volume of a 3D shape is a measure of what it takes to fill a 3D shape. In the figure below showing a paper cone for holding popcorn, the surface area is the amount of wax needed to coat the inside of the cone so the popcorn (butter) does not soak through the paper. The volume is how much popcorn can be held.
How we round on geometric problems will depend as always on the application. For example a carpenter will round to units that can be measured with a tape measure like 1/16 of an inch. Contextless examples in this section will be rounded using significant digits. When using significant digits treat all numbers in the formulae as exact numbers.
These look like a polygon has been extruded. That polygon is called the base. If the base is extruded perpendicular to its surface, then it is called a right prism. Typically this means the sides are rectangles.
Prisms are named for their base shape. For example, there are triangular prisms and pentagonal prisms. The figure below shows four prisms. Those on the left are right prisms, and those on the right are skewed. The top two are triangular prisms, and the bottom two are trapezoidal prisms.
For surface area the sides are always parallelograms (rectangles for right prisms). For the volume \(B\) is the area of the base (the triangle or trapezoid in the four examples). \(h\) is the height or distance from the bottom to the top (or front to back if we tip the prism over). Note this is not along an edge, but perpendicular to the base.
The surface area consists of the areas of the two right triangles and the three rectangles. Because the triangles are right triangles, they both have area \(\frac{1}{2} \cdot 2.12\underline{5} \cdot 3.12\underline{5} = 3.3\underline{2}03125\text{.}\) The rectangle areas are \(2.12\underline{5} \cdot 10.25\underline{0} = 21.7\underline{8}125\) and \(3.12\underline{5} \cdot 10.25\underline{0} = 32.0\underline{3}125\text{.}\) For the third rectangle we need to calculate the side length. Because this is a right triangle we can use the Pythagorean theorem.
The volume is the area of the triangle, 3.320, times the height of the prism, 10.250. Thus the area is \(3.320 \cdot 10.250 = 34.03\text{.}\) Notice that the volume is not affected by the tilt of the prism. This is not true of the surface area which we do not have sufficient information to calculate here.
The height (\(h\)) of the cylinder is the distance from the top disc down to the plane in which the bottom disc sits. It does not necessarily touch both discs (cylinder skewed so far the discs do not overlap). If the cylinder is not slanted then \(s=h\text{.}\) Notice the volume is not dependent on the angle of slant but the lateral surface area is. To obtain the complete surface area add the area of the top and bottom discs to the lateral surface area.
The formula for the area of the side of a cylinder looks like width (\(2\pi r\)) times height (\(s\)) which is the formula for area of a rectangle. Indeed if you think about a can (the type that contain paint, soup, or other substances), the label if peeled off is a rectangle. The height of that rectangle is the height of the can and the width of that rectangle is enough to wrap around the can.
We must approximate \(\pi\) precise to at least as many positions as the rest of the numbers. Otherwise we will decrease the overall precision. We do not need to use more positions: the extra disappears in the rounding at the end. Here we use the portion most commonly memorized or listed in a table.
What are the surface area and volume of this spherical dome? The dome is sitting on the ground so the only surface area of importance is the top surface.
To calculate the volume we need the height which is not labeled. This is probably because we cannot put a measuring tape along the height (interior). However, we can calculate the height based on the right triangle with the height as one leg and the edge length as the hypotenuse. The second leg is in the base from the center to the corner of the pyramid.
We do not have the length of the segment on the base (center to corner). If we add a line from the center of the base to the midpoint of one of the sides, we form another right triangle with the desired length as the hypotenuse. The legs are each half the length of one of the sides. The Pythagorean theorem will give us the hypotenuse length.
What is the relationship between the volume of a pyramid to the volume of a prism with the same base? βsame baseβ means the same shape and size. The pyramid could then be placed inside the prism.
The surface area formulas apply only when it is a right circular cone (tip of the cone directly above the center of the circle). For the full surface area we add the area of the circle at the bottom of the cone. The volume formula works for all cones.
To calculate the volume we need to first calculate the height. Looking at the image we see that the labeled radius and side length are part of a right triangle with the height. This means
The frustums are compound shapes: they are obtained by subtracting one shape from itself. The latin word frustum means βcut off.β This is the etymology of βfrustratedβ which refers to a cut off hope. For these formulae the bases must be parallel. Note \(P_i\) below refers to the perimeter of the bases.
\(P_1\) is the perimeter of the lower base (bottom polygon). It will be the sum of the lengths of each side. \(P_2\) is calculated similarly for the upper base (top polygon). \(B_1\) is the area of the lower base (bottom polygon). It will be calculated based on the type of polygon (e.g., area of a triangle, parallelogram, etc.). \(B_2\) is the area of the upper base.
The surface area consists of the areas of the base and top which are triangles and the three sides which are rhobmi. For the base and top we know the lengths of the three sides, so we can use Heronβs formula to calculate their areas. The perimeter of the lower base (triangle) is \(3(3.500)=10.500\) (The number of sides, 3, is an exact number so precision is not changed.) The perimeter of the upper base (triangle) is \(3(2.200)=6.600\text{.}\)
Thus the surface area of the entire shape is \(60.0\underline{1}24987+23.7\underline{1}106071+3(6.90\underline{2}7) \approx 104.4\underline{3}16594 \approx 104.43\text{.}\)
The total surface area adds the area of the two discs (bottom and top) to the lateral surface area. The volume is the same formula as for a frustum of a pyramid because these are pyramids built on a circle.
What is the surface area an volume of one part of a muffin tin? The surface area would be the area of a paper liner (assuming it is flat and not corrugated) and the volume is the amount of batter that can be held (if fully filled).
If we have the slant height (length of the side of a frustum of a cone) we can calculate the height. This is similar to the calculation of height in ExampleΒ 4.2.14.
Suppose the larger radius is 7.32, the smaller radius is 5.44, and the slant height is 6.09. The slant height is the hypotenuse of a right triangle with the height being one other side. The third side is on the larger base and has length \(7.32-5.44=1.88\text{.}\) We can use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the height.
For the surface area of a frustum of a cone we use the slant height: the distance from the edge of the bottom base to the edge of the top base. Here we consider limitations on that length.
What is the top of the range of possible slant heights for this frustum? Note this is for bottom base radius 5, height 3, and top base radius unrestricted (but smaller than bottom base).
Effectively using knowledge of geometric properties requires recognizing the shapes we know in problems we encounter and figuring out missing parameters from the parameters we do know. The latter we did in ExampleΒ 4.2.14 and ExampleΒ 4.2.24. We will extend our ability to calculate missing parameters in ChapterΒ 7. In the following problems we identify shapes and apply the appropriate formulae.
First, we identify the shapes. The front and back are triangles. The front triangle has a circular hole in it. The bottom and two sides are rectangles. Although this is a 3D object surface area uses 2D formulae.
For the triangles, we have edge lengths and not the height, because it is easier to measure the edges than the middle. For the area we will use Heronβs formula.
First, we identify the shapes. This is a right circular cone with a half sphere on top. The diameter of the cone and sphere is \(2 \; \frac{3}{8} = 2.375\) inches. The radius then is half of that or \(1 \; \frac{3}{16} = 1.1875\text{.}\) We convert to decimal inches, because in the end we would want to convert cubic inches (volume) to cups or pints or similar volume measures. This is easier with decimal inches.
The surface area of the half sphere is \(\frac{1}{2} \cdot 4 \pi (1.1875)^2 \approx 8.860265547\text{.}\) Thus the total surface area of the ice cream is \(22.81801626+8.860265547 \approx 31.67828181 \approx 32\) square inches.
A part is produced by drilling a cylindrical hole into a cylinder as shown below. If the weight of aluminum is \(2.70 \text{g}/\text{cm}^3\) what is the total weight of this part? These are precision measurements; round using significant digits.
Next, we need to calculate the volume of the hole that is drilled out. That radius is given in mm, so we should convert to cm first. 4.76 mm is 0.476 cm, because there are 10 millimeters per centimeter. It has a radius of \(0.476/2=0.238 \text{ cm}\text{.}\) The volume is