Calculate and Compare Volume

In this activity, we're going to be learning how to calculate the volume of cubes and cuboids.

We use the following formulae to work out the volumes of these shapes:

Volume of a cube/cuboid = length × width × height

Volume of a Cube

We only need to know the length of one side because this is a cube (the length, the width and the height will be equal).

Cuboid

We need to know the length, the width and the height.

Let's have a go:

Example

Calculate the volume of this cuboid in cm³

Answer

The length is 15 cm, the width is 4 cm and the height is 8 cm.

Volume of cuboid = length × width × height = 15 × 4 × 8 = 60 × 8 = 480 cm³

Now let's compare the volume of two shapes:

Which shape has the greatest volume?

Answer

Yellow cuboid = 12 m x 2 m x 2 m = 48 m³

Blue cuboid = 10 m x 4 m x 2 m = 80 m³

The volume of the blue cuboid is greater.

Top Tips: 

Check the unit of measure carefully in each of the following questions; we will be using mm, cm, m and km.

We can do each calculation in any order.

Volume is measured in cubic units (mm³ cm³ m³ km³)

Now it's your turn to try some questions - good luck!