GCSE: Volumes and Surface Area

Dr J Frost ([email protected])
www.drfrostmaths.com
GCSE Revision Pack Reference: 132, 133, 134, 135, 136i, 136ii, 138

Last modified: 18th September 2019

GCSE Specification
• 132. Know and use formulae to calculate the surface areas and
volumes of cuboids and right-prisms.
• 133. Find the volume of a cylinder and surface area of a cylinder.
• 134. Find the surface area and volume of cones, spheres and
hemispheres.
• 135. Find the volume of a pyramid.
• 136i. Solve a range of problems involving surface area and
volume, e.g. given the volume and length of a cylinder find the
radius.
• 136ii. Solve problems in which the surface area or volume of
two shapes is equated.
• 138. Solve problems involving more complex shapes and solids,
including (segments of circles and) frustums of cones.
 ! Don’t write these
All the GCSE formulae for 3D shapes down yet.

(The * indicates ones that won’t be in your formula booklet)

r

r
l
h

?
? ?
?
? *
 Area of curved
Bro Tip: ‘Roll out’ the cylinder to work
out the area of the curved surface. surface ?

h ? *

Bro Tip: The same formula

applies to the cone.
SKILL #1: Volumes of Prisms

 ! Volume of prism =
Area of cross section
? length
 
𝐴  
𝑙
Test Your Understanding

 And what is the surface area? (Hint: you’ll need Pythagoras)

?

?
SKILL #2: Volumes of Cylinders

𝒓   Noting that a cylinder is just a ‘circular prism’:

?
 𝒉
  making a vertical slit and folding out the
By
curved surface of the cylinder so that it is
rectangular:

?
Test Your Understanding
3  𝑐𝑚
 
Volume = ?
Surface Area = ?
10𝑐𝑚
 

 6 𝑥
 
Give your answers in terms of :
5  𝑥 Volume = ?
Surface Area = ?
Exercise 1
10𝑐𝑚
 
1 2 3 4
2  𝑐𝑚
6 4  𝑐𝑚
  𝑐𝑚 4
  𝑐𝑚
8
  𝑐𝑚
  ? 7 𝑐𝑚 ? 3
𝑉 =40 𝜋=125.66
? 𝑐𝑚
i)
  The prism is made of 3    
? metal of density 6.6g/cm .
Find its mass. 𝑉 𝑐 𝑚3
  =272 ?
ii) Surface Area?
?
7  𝑐𝑚
? 7
5 6
To
Ali 20
  𝑐𝑚
From
Santa

[Real world example] A sewage

 treatment centre fills a Santa wants to wrap a
[Edexcel] The pond is completely full of water. Sumeet wants to
cylindrical silo with waste. The cylindrical present for  empty the pond so he can clean it. Sumeet uses a pump to empty
diameter is 20m and the height Ali, with dimensions as
5m. It is full to the top with shown above. It costs the pond. The volume of water in the pond decreases at a constant
1300kg of waste. Find the 0.24p per cm2 of rate. The level of the water in the pond goes down by 20cm in the
density of the waste. wrapping paper. first 30 minutes. Work out how much more time Sumeet has to
Determine the cost to wait for the pump to empty the pond completely. (6 marks)
? wrap the present. 0.4m3 emptied in first 30 minutes. So 0.8m 3 emptied per hour.
Total volume = 1.8m3
?
£2.85
?
SKILL #3: Spheres and Hemispheres
Give your answers in terms of .

Volume =

?
3cm
?
Surface Area =
For a Sphere:

(from formula sheet)

?
Test Your Understanding
 Leave your answers in terms of .

2m

10m

? ?
?
?
Exercise 2
 Give your answers in terms of unless where specified.

1 2 Mr Wutang and his clan eat from 3

a full (thin) hemispherical bowl of
rice, a bowl with diameter 18cm.
42m
6 He eats 400g. What is the density
of the rice to 3sf? (in g/cm3)
Volume = 144?
Volume = 6174? m3
?
Surface Area = 108
Volume = 486
?
Density = 400 / 486
? m2
Surface Area = 1323
= 0.262g/cm3

4
18cm 6cm 5 What radius is needed for a
A hemispherical bowl
with radius 18cm, with a hemisphere so that the
rim of width 6cm. volume is 18 m3?

Volume
= 3888 – 1152
= 2736 ? ?
Surface Area
= 1296 + 324 – 144
= 1476 ?
SKILL #4: Volumes of Pyramids

 In general:
?
𝒉 
 
𝑨 Bro Exam Tip: This one is not given in
the formula booklet!

 
Quickfire examples:
?
  = 𝟏 ×𝟐𝟒 × 𝟓=𝟒𝟎 𝒄 𝒎 𝟑
𝑉
𝟑 ?
 𝟓 𝒄𝒎   𝟔
 𝟒 𝒄𝒎
 𝟔 𝒄𝒎   𝟒
A* Question

√50
5√2

 
Length ?
of bottom diagonal (by Pythagoras)
Height of pyramid = (again by Pythagoras)
?
Volume =
?
Test Your Understanding

Q
 
 𝟖 𝒄𝒎

𝟐 𝟐
 𝟖 𝒄𝒎
 𝟖 𝒄𝒎 𝑩𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍=√𝟖 +𝟖 =𝟖 √𝟐𝒄𝒎
Volume ?

Q  
Determine the volume of a pyramid with a rectangular base of width
6cm and length 8cm, and a slant height of 13cm (your answer should
turn out to be a whole number).

?
Exercise 3
1 2 3
𝟗 𝒌𝒎
𝟔  𝒄𝒎 𝟏  𝒌𝒎   𝟏  𝒎
𝟏  𝒎
𝟒  𝒄𝒎 𝟏  𝒌𝒎
𝟏  𝒌𝒎 𝟏  𝒌𝒎 𝟏  𝒎
𝟒  𝒄𝒎 𝟏  𝒌𝒎
𝟏  𝒌𝒎   𝟏 𝟑
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒=𝟑𝟐
  𝒄?𝒎 𝟑 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒=𝟏𝟓
  𝒌?𝒎𝟑 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒=
𝟔
?
𝒎
The implication is that if we chop a
cube across its face diagonals, we
4 5 have something 6 times as small.
𝟏𝟎𝒄𝒎
  𝟏  𝒄𝒎  𝑩
6
𝟖𝟓𝒄𝒎
 

𝟔  𝒄𝒎 𝟏  𝒄𝒎
𝟏  𝒄𝒎  𝑪
𝟔  𝒄𝒎 𝟐𝟒
  𝒄𝒎
?  𝑨 𝟏𝟎𝒄𝒎
𝐻𝑒𝑖𝑔h𝑡=√ 𝟖𝟐𝒄𝒎
     
?   ?
? ?
?
?
SKILL #4: Cones and Frustums
Noting that a cone is just a
circular-based pyramid:

 𝒍
  1 2
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 = 𝜋? 𝑟 h
𝒉  3

𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑜𝑓 ?𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒=𝜋𝑟𝑙

 
𝒓 

 (where is the slant height)

Example
  𝟏 ? 𝟐
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒= × 𝝅 ×𝟑 ×𝟒= 𝟏𝟐 𝝅
4 𝟑 ?
3
Frustum
! A frustum is a cone with part of the
top chopped off.

1
 Volume =
12
?
9

4 Your Go...

Volume
 
? 2

(Hint: you’ll need

For a Cone: to work out the 8
radius of the top
circle, perhaps
by similar
triangles?)
12
Exercise 4
1 2
3
3
8 12
12

4
5
 
Volume ? 12   ?
Surface Area
? Volume = 96?
Surface Area = 96? 6

4 3
The
  density of ice cream is 5 8
1.09g/cm . I fill a cone with ice
3
12
cream plus a hemispherical 5
piece on top. What is the mass
6
𝟔𝒄𝒎
  of the ice cream? 4
𝟏𝟎𝒄𝒎
 
?  

? 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 ?𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎
 
SKILL #5: Finding values of variables
Sometimes the volume and surface area is already given, and you
need to find the value of some variable, e.g. radius or height.

Example

  cylinder has a height of 10m

A
 𝑟 and a volume of . What is its
radius?
10𝑚
 

?
Check Your Understanding
Q  
[Edexcel] A dog tin is cylindrical in
shape with the indicated lengths. The
manufacturer wants to make a new tin
with the same volume but a radius of
5.8cm. What height should they make
the tin?

Q  
The Earth has a volume of
What is the radius of the Earth?

?
Exercise 5

10
  𝑚 2 3 4
1  𝑟

h  5𝑚
   𝒓  𝒓
3 3
𝑉
  =1520 𝑚 𝑉
  =20 𝑚
  =100 𝑚 3
𝑉   =100 𝑚 2
𝑆𝐴

h=𝟒
  . 𝟖𝟒
?𝒎 𝑟=𝟏.
  𝟏𝟑? 𝒎 𝑟=𝟐.
  𝟖𝟖
?𝒎 𝑟=𝟐.
  𝟖𝟐
?𝒎

5 𝑉  =720 𝑐 𝑚3 6 7  𝑆𝐴 =75 𝜋

𝟏𝟎𝒄𝒎
  𝟐  𝒙
 𝒙
 𝒙
 𝑆𝐴 =27 𝜋
 𝒙
  𝑥 =𝟓
𝑥=𝟔
  √ 𝟔=𝟏𝟒? . 𝟕 𝒄𝒎 ?
 𝒙

  𝑥 =𝟑
?
SKILL #6: Preserved volume or surface area

3km
“That ain’t
no moon
Chewie”

Darth Vader decides he doesn’t like the shape of his Death Star, so
melts it down and rebuilds it using the same amount of material to
form a Death Cube.
What is the side length x of his Death Cube?
 
4 3 3
𝜋 ×3
? =𝑥
3 Bro Tip: Find the volume of each,
equate them, then simplify.
Further Example

?
Check Your Understanding

 𝒙
 𝒉

 𝒙
 Sphere melted to form cone. Express in terms of .
?
 𝑥
This time the
surface areas are
 𝒙 h  the same (and
should be equated
before simplifying)

 A solid hemisphere with radius has the same surface area as a cylinder with
radius and height . Determine the height of the cylinder in terms of .

?
Exercise 6
1 A
  sphere with radius is melted to form a 4 A
  sphere with radius has the same surface
cylinder of radius and height . Determine area as a cylinder with radius and height .
in terms of . Find in terms of .

?
A squared-based pyramid with base of side
?
and height is melted to form a cube of
side . Determine in terms of . [Edexcel]
  Pictured are a solid cone and a
2 5 solid hemisphere. The surface area of the
cone is equal to the surface area of the
A hemisphere of radius is melted to form a hemisphere. Express in terms of .” (Hint:
cone of radius and height . Determine in you’ll need Pythag to find slant height)
terms of . ?
3
?

?
GCSE Specification
• 132. Know and use formulae to calculate the surface areas and
volumes of cuboids and right-prisms.
• 133. Find the volume of a cylinder and surface area of a cylinder.
• 134. Find the surface area and volume of cones, spheres and
hemispheres.
• 135. Find the volume of a pyramid.
• 136i. Solve a range of problems involving surface area and
volume, e.g. given the volume and length of a cylinder find the
radius.
• 136ii. Solve problems in which the surface area or volume of
two shapes is equated.
• 138. Solve problems involving more complex shapes and solids,
including (segments of circles and) frustums of cones.