How to find the
Volumes and Surface Area of Prisms
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 =
? length
Area of cross section
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
By making a vertical slit and folding out the
curved surface of the cylinder so that it is
rectangular:
?
Test Your Understanding
3 𝑐𝑚
Volume = ?
Surface Area = ?
10𝑐𝑚
6𝑥
Give your answers in terms of :
5𝑥 Volume = ?
Surface Area = ?
Exercise 1
10𝑐𝑚
1 2 3 4
2 𝑐𝑚
6 𝑐𝑚 4 𝑐𝑚
4 𝑐𝑚
8 𝑐𝑚
? i) The prism is made of 7 𝑐𝑚 ? 3
? 3 𝑉=40 𝜋=125.66𝑐
? 𝑚
metal of density 6.6g/cm3.
Find its mass. 𝑉 =272𝑐? 𝑚
?
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
cylindrical silo with waste. The cylindrical present for [Edexcel] The pond is completely full of water. Sumeet wants to
diameter is 20m and the height Ali, with dimensions as empty the pond so he can clean it. Sumeet uses a pump to empty
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
wait for the pump to empty the pond completely. (6 marks)
? Determine the cost to
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 ?
