ABSTRACT
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
• state the SI unit of volume • calculate the volumes and surface areas of cuboids, cylinders, prisms, pyramids, cones and spheres • calculate volumes and surface areas of frusta of pyramids and cones • calculate the frustum and zone of a sphere • calculate volumes of regular solids using the prismoidal rule • appreciate that volumes of similar bodies are proportional to the cubes of the corresponding linear dimensions
The volume of any solid is a measure of the space occupied by the solid. Volume is measured in cubic units such as mm3, cm3 and m3. This chapter deals with finding volumes of common solids; in engineering it is often important to be able to calculate volume or capacity to estimate, say, the amount of liquid, such as water, oil or petrol, in differing shaped containers.
