Investigate The Formulae for Area and Volume

In this activity, we will be challenged to work out the volume and area of different shapes.

Volume

Remember that volume is measured in cubic units, e.g. 1 cm³ or 1 m³

We need to know the following formulae to work out the volumes of these 3D solid shapes.

Cube

We need to know the side length.

Remember, the length, the width and the height will all be equal to the side length because this is a cube.

Volume of cube = side length x side length x side length

Cuboid

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

Volume of cuboid = length x width x height 

Area

Remember that area is measured in square units for example, m² or cm²

Rectangles

We need to know the base length and the perpendicular height from the base to the top.

Area of rectangle = base x height

Parallelogram

We need to know the base length and the perpendicular height from base to top (not the slant height)

Area of parallelogram = base x height

Triangle

We need to know the base length and the perpendicular height from the base to the apex (not the slant height)

Area of triangle = 1/2 base x height

Or

Area of triangle = base x height ÷ 2

That's a lot to remember! You can look back at this page at any point by clicking on the red help button on the screen.

Let's get started.