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L E S S O N

10.2
How much deeper would oceans be if sponges didnt live there?
STEVEN WRIGHT

Volume of Prisms and Cylinders

In real life you encounter many volume
problems. For example, when you shop for groceries, its a good idea to compare the volumes and the prices of different items to find the best buy. When you fill a cars gas tank or when you fit last nights leftovers into a freezer dish, you fill the volume of an empty container. Many occupations also require familiarity with volume. An engineer must calculate the volume and the weight of sections of a bridge to avoid putting too much stress on any one section. Chemists, biologists, physicists, and geologists must all make careful volume measurements in their research. Carpenters, plumbers, and painters also know and use volume relationships. A chef must measure the correct volume of each ingredient in a cake to ensure a tasty success.

Volume is the measure of the amount of space contained in a solid. You use cubic units to measure volume: cubic inches (in3 ), cubic feet (ft3 ), cubic yards (yd3 ), cubic centimeters (cm3 ), cubic meters (m3 ), and so on . The volume of an object is the number of unit cubes that completely fill the space within the object.

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The Volume Formula for Prisms and Cylinders

Step 1

Find the volume of each right rectangular prism below in cubic centimeters. That is, how many cubes measuring 1 cm on each edge will fit into each solid? Within your group, discuss different strategies for finding each volume. How could you find the volume of any right rectangular prism?

Notice that the number of cubes resting on the base equals the number of square units in the area of the base. The number of layers of cubes equals the number of units in the height of the prism. So you can use the area of the base and the height of the prism to calculate the volume.
Step 2

Complete the conjecture. Rectangular Prism Volume Conjecture If B is the area of the base of a right rectangular prism and H is the height of the solid, then the formula for the volume is V =

In Chapter 8, you discovered that you can reshape parallelograms, triangles, trapezoids, and circles into rectangles to find their area. You can use the same method to find the areas of bases that have these shapes. Then you can multiply the area of the base by the height of the prism to find its volume. For example, to find the volume of a right triangular prism, find the area of the triangular base (the number of cubes resting on the base) and multiply it by the height (the number of layers of cubes). So, you can extend the Rectangular Prism Volume Conjecture to all right prisms and right cylinders.
Step 3

Complete the conjecture. Right Prism-Cylinder Volume Conjecture If B is the area of the base of a right prism (or cylinder) and H is the height the solid, then the formula for the volume is V =

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What about the volume of an oblique prism or cylinder? You can approximate the shape of this oblique rectangular prism with a staggered stack of three reams of 8.5-by-11-inch paper. If you nudge the individual pieces of paper into a slanted stack, then your approximation can be even better.

Rearranging the paper into a right rectangular prism changes the shape, but certainly the volume of paper hasnt changed. The area of the base, 8.5 by 11 inches, didnt change and the height, 6 inches, didnt change, either. In the same way, you can use crackers, CDs, or coins to show that an oblique cylinder has the same volume as a right cylinder with the same base and height.
Step 4

Use the stacking model to extend the last conjecture to oblique prisms and cylinders. Complete the conjecture. Oblique Prism-Cylinder Volume Conjecture The volume of an oblique prism (or cylinder) is the same as the volume of a right prism (or cylinder) that has the same and the same .

Finally, you can combine the last three conjectures into one conjecture for finding the volume of any prism or cylinder, whether its right or oblique.
Step 5

Copy and complete the conjecture. Prism-Cylinder Volume Conjecture The volume of a prism or a cylinder is the multiplied by the .

If you successfully completed the investigation, you saw that the same volume formula applies to all prisms and cylinders, regardless of the shapes of their bases. To calculate the volume of a prism or cylinder, first calculate the area of the base using the formula appropriate to its shape. Then multiply the area of the base by the height of the solid. In oblique prisms and cylinders, the lateral edges are no longer at right angles to the bases, so you do not use the length of the lateral edge as the height.
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EXAMPLE A

Find the volume of a right trapezoidal prism that has a height of 10 cm. The two bases of the trapezoid measure 4 cm and 8 cm, and its height is 5 cm.

Solution

Find the area of the base.

The base is a trapezoid, so use this formula to find the area of the base.

(5)(4 + 8) = 30 Find the volume. V = BH V = (30)(10) = 300 The volume is 300 cm3.

Substitute the given values into the equation, then simplify.

The volume of a prism is equal to the area of its base multiplied by its height. Substitute the calculated area and given height into the equation, then simplify.

EXAMPLE B

Find the volume of an oblique cylinder that has a base with a radius of 6 inches and a height of 7 inches. Find the area of the base. B = B = Find the volume. V = BH V = (7) = 252
The volume of a prism is equal to the area of its base multiplied by its height. Substitute the calculated area and given height into the equation, then simplify. The base is a circle, so use this formula to find the area of the base. Substitute the given values into the equation, then simplify.

Solution

The volume is 252

in3, or about 791.68 in3.

EXERCISES
Find the volume of each solid in Exercises 16. All measurements are in centimeters. Round approximate answers to the nearest hundredths. 1. Oblique rectangular prism 2. Right triangular prism 3. Right trapezoidal prism

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4. Right cylinder

5. Right semicircular cylinder

6. Right cylinder with a 90 slice removed

7. Use the information about the base and height of each solid to find the volume. All measurements are given in centimeters.

b = 6 , b2 = 7 , h =8,r =3 b = 9 , b2 = 12 , h = 12 , r = 6 b = 8 , b2 = 19 , h = 18 , r = 8

H = 20 H = 20 H = 23

a. V = b. V = c. V =

d. V = e. V = f. V =

g. V = h. V = i. V =

j. V = k. V = l. V =

For Exercises 89, sketch and label each solid described, then find the volume. 8. An oblique trapezoidal prism. The trapezoidal base has a height of 4 in. and bases that measure 8 in. and 12 in. The height of the prism is 24 in. 9. A right circular cylinder with a height of T. The radius of the base is .

10. Sketch and label two different rectangular prisms, each with a volume of 288 cm3. In Exercises 1113, express the volume of each solid with the help of algebra. 11. Right rectangular prism 12. Oblique cylinder 13. Right rectangular prism with a rectangular hole

14. Application A cord of firewood is 128 cubic feet. Margaretta has three storage boxes for firewood that each measure 2 feet by 3 feet by 4 feet. Does she have enough space to order a full cord of firewood? A half cord? A quarter cord? Explain.

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Career
In construction and landscaping, sand, rocks, gravel, and fill dirt are often sold by the yard, which actually means a cubic yard.

15. Application A contractor needs to build a ramp, as shown at right, from the street to the front of a garage door. How many cubic yards of fill will she need?

16. If an average rectangular block of limestone used to build the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is approximately 2.5 feet by 3 feet by 4 feet, and limestone weighs approximately 170 pounds per cubic foot, what is the weight of one of the nearly 2,300,000 limestone blocks used to build the pyramid?

17. Although the Exxon Valdez oil spill (11 million gallons of oil) is one of the most notorious oil spills, it was small compared to the 250 million gallons of crude oil that were spilled during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. A gallon occupies 0.13368 cubic foot. How many rectangular swimming pools, each 20 feet by 30 feet by 5 feet, could be filled with 250 million gallons of crude oil? 18. When folded, a 12-by-12-foot section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt requires about 1 cubic foot of storage. In 1996, the quilt consisted of 32,000 3-by-6-foot panels. What was the quilts volume in 1996? If the storage facility had a floor area of 1,500 square feet, how high did the quilt panels need to be stacked?

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Review
For Exercises 19 and 20, draw and label each solid. Use dashed lines to show the hidden edges. 19. An octahedron with all triangular faces and another octahedron with at least one nontriangular face 20. A cylinder with both radius and height r, a cone with both radius and height r resting flush on one base of the cylinder, and a hemisphere with radius r resting flush on the other base of the cylinder For Exercises 21 and 22, identify each statement as true or false. Sketch a counterexample for each false statement or explain why it is false. 21. A prism always has an even number of vertices. 22. A section of a cube is either a square or a rectangle. 23. The tower below is an unusual shape. Its neither a cylinder nor a cone. Sketch a two-dimensional figure and an axis such that if you spin your figure about the axis, it will create a solid of revolution shaped like the tower.

24. Do research to find a photo or drawing of a chemical model of a crystal. Sketch it. What type of polyhedral structure does it exhibit? You will find helpful Internet links at www.keymath.com/DG . Science
Ice is a well-known crystal structure. If ice were denser than water, it would sink to the bottom of the ocean, away from heat sources. Eventually the oceans would fill from the bottom up with ice, and we would have an ice planet. What a cold thought!

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25. Six points are equally spaced around a circular track with a 20 m radius. Ben runs around the track from one point, past the second, to the third. Al runs straight from the first point to the second, and then straight to the third. How much farther does Ben run than Al?

26. AS and AT are tangent to circle O at S and T, respectively. m SMO = 90, m SAT = 90, SM = 6. Find the exact value of PA .

THE SOMA CUBE

you solved Piet Heins puzzle at the end of the previous lesson, you now have sketches of the seven nonconvex polyhedrons that can be assembled using four or fewer cubes. These seven polyhedrons consist of a total of 27 cubes: 6 sets of 4 cubes and 1 set of 3 cubes. These pieces can be arranged to form a 3-by-3-by-3 cube. The puzzle of how to put them together in a perfect cube is known as the Soma Cube puzzle. Go to www.keymath.com/DG to learn more about the Soma Cube.

If

Use cubes (wood, plastic, or sugar cubes) to build one set of the seven pieces of the Soma Cube. Use glue, tape, or putty to connect the cubes. Solve the Soma Cube puzzle: Put the pieces together to make a 3-by-3-by-3 cube. Then build these other shapes. How do you build the sofa? The tunnel? The castle? The aircraft carrier? Finally, create a shape of your own that uses all the pieces.

Your project should include The seven unique pieces of the Soma Cube. Solution to the Soma Cube puzzle and at least two of the other puzzles. An isometric drawing of your own shape that uses all seven pieces.

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