45 Volume Arkansas Tech University（阿肯色理工大学45卷）.pdfVIP

45 Volume Surface area measures the area of the two-dimensional boundary of a three- dimensional figure; it is the area of the outside surface of a solid. Volume, on the other hand, is a measure of the space a figure occupies, or the space ”inside” the three-dimensional figure. ”How much cardboard does it take to make the box?” is a question about surface area; ”How much cereal can be put into the box?” is a question about volume. Surface area is mea- 2 sured in squares of length units, such as square feet (ft ), square centimeters 2 2 (cm ) or square inches (in ). However, volume is measured in cubes of length 3 3 3 units, such as cubic feet (ft ), cubic centimeters (cm ) or cubic inches (in ). Rectangular Prisms Consider a rectangular box of length 4 cm , width 2 cm, and height 3 cm. Then this box occupy the same space as 24 boxes each of length 1 cm, width 1 cm, and height 1 cm. Note that 2 × 4 × 3 = 24. Thus, the volume of the 3 box is V = 24 cm . This suggests that the volume of a rectangular prism with length l, width w, and height h is given by the formula V = lwh. Since lw is the area B of the base of the prism then we can say that Volume of rectangular prism = area of base × height This formula is valid for any prism whose base area is B and height is h Remark 45.1 Note that a cube is a rectangular prism with l = w = h = s so that its volume is V = s3 Example 45.1 Find the volume of the prism given below. 1 Solution. First we have to find the area of the triangle that forms the base of this prism. The