How to Calculate the Volumes of Basic Shapes

The basic formula for volume is length * width * height and is necessary in geometry and the science of
understanding mass in the form of basic shapes. Learn more about how to calculate the volumes of basic
shapes and use the methodologies.

Square Peg in a Square Hole

Let's take a few minutes to review the volumes of shapes. These get quite important in calculus
problems because we often use calculus to do things like optimize areas, optimize volumes -
you know, how much shampoo should you put in a shampoo bottle to make the most money? -
that kind of thing. I also like to call this the square peg in square hole problem. And this is
because of how I classify shapes.

2D Shapes

Formula for finding the area of triangles

Let's start with 2D shapes. So, now instead of looking at volume, let's look at the area. So, if you
have a square with a side length s, then the area of the square is s2. The perimeter, that is the
length that borders the shape, is 4 * s. Now, a square is just a fancy type of rectangle. A
rectangle has some height, h, and some width, w, so the area of a rectangle is wh - the width
times the height. You can find the length of this line that surrounds the rectangle, or the
perimeter, as 2 * w + 2 * h because we're adding up w + h + w + h when we go around the
rectangle.

Now, the second of our square peg in square hole area is the triangle. So, let's take a look at two
different types of triangles. We've got this guy here, and we've got this guy here. Now both of
these have a base that's the width of the bottom part of the triangle, and it's always going to be
along some side. We're going to call that b. Now the triangles also have some height. It's really
important that the height be measured as being perpendicular to the base. So, for some
triangles, such as this one here, we need to measure the height actually outside of the base
because we need this height to be straight up from the base, to be perpendicular from the
base. In these cases, the area is just 1/2 bh. Now, I know this is all a review, so I won't explain
why.

Now, the last of my three types of shapes in my square peg, square hole is the circle. We usually
classify a circle by some radius, r, measured from the center of the circle straight out to the
edge of the circle. So, this radius is the same no matter where along the circle you measure it.
The area of a circle like this is pi r2.

3D Shapes

Spheres are 3D shapes that do not have the same dimensions from top to bottom

Okay. Square peg - square hole. Rectangular peg - rectangular hole. Triangular peg - triangular
hole. Circular peg - circular hole. Well, that's fine but these are all 3D shapes. So this brings us to
my two ways to classify 3D shapes.

The first, shapes that are the same from the top to the bottom. So, here we go with the pegs.
We've got a can. So, a can will fit in this circular hole and it will fit the same, no matter if it is the
beginning of the can or the end. There's no difference. It's just a cylinder. A cube is another
example. So, here the bottom of the cube - this cross-section here - looks just the same as the
top. Prism - same thing, except now your cross-section looks like a triangle.

The second classification for shapes, are shapes that aren't the same from the top to the
bottom. So, these are things like a square pyramid, where we've got a square on the bottom and
a point at the top, or a regular pyramid with a triangle on the bottom and a point on the top. If I
put the square pyramid into my hole, it will be a square at the bottom, but at the top it will just
be a little point going through that hole. Same thing with the triangular pyramid. A sphere is
another example. If you slice through a sphere at the top, you're going get a little, teeny, tiny
circle. At the very top you're going to get no circle whatsoever. It's just going to be a point. In the
middle, the circle's going to be big. So imagine you're taking an onion, and if you cut straight
down, perpendicular to the cutting board, you're going to end up with a lot of differently sized
circles.
 How to find the volume of a cylinder

Volume of 3D Shapes
So, what does this mean in terms of finding the volume? Well, for anything that has the same
shape on the top and the bottom and all the way through, like the can, the cube and the prism,
the volume is just the height times the area of the base. So, here we've got our can. We've got
height. The base area is just pi r2. So, there's my base. So, the volume is h(pi r2). Say now I've got
this box, this trunk of sorts, with a base that is a square. So, now my base area is s2 because
that's the area of a square, and my volume is going to be the base area, s2 times h. So my
volume is h(s2). So, you can do this for anything where the cross-section is the same from the
top to the bottom. Say your base area is an E. It looks like a big E. Same thing. Base area times
the height will give you the volume.

So, what about things that change? Let's look at some of those. For example, a sphere: the
volume of a sphere is 4/3 pi r3. A hemisphere is just half a sphere, and so the volume of a
hemisphere is 1/2 (4/3 pi r3), which is also 2/3 pi r3.

Pyramids and cones are treated very similarly to one another. So, each one has a height, and
the volume is the h/3 (area of the base). You can remember this for both of those. So, the area
of the base of a cone, obviously, is the area of this circle, and for a pyramid it's going to be, in
this case, a triangle, sometimes a square, but that's going to be the area of the base.

How to find the volume of pyramids and cones

Lesson Summary
So, let's recap. When you're trying to find the volume of something just remember if it's a
square peg in a square hole. If the base cross-section is the same as the cross-section
throughout the entire volume then your volume is the base area, or one of those cross-sections,
times the height. If it's not the same, then you need to remember one of the other rules. For
example, for cones, your volume is h/3 (base area). For circles, just remember the equation for
the volume of a sphere: 4/3 pi r3.
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