Calculate the Volume of a Cylinder - dummies

# Calculate the Volume of a Cylinder

To calculate the volume of a cylinder, you need to know its height and the area of its base. Because a cylinder is a flat-top figure (a solid with two congruent, parallel bases), the base can be either the top or bottom.

If you know a cylinder’s height and lateral area, but not its radius, you can use the formula for surface area to find the radius, and then calculate the volume from there.

The lateral area of a cylinder is basically one rectangle rolled into a tube shape. Think of the lateral area of a cylinder as one rectangular paper towel that rolls exactly once around a paper towel roll. The base of this rectangle (you know, the part of the towel that wraps around the bottom of the roll) is the same as the circumference of the cylinder’s base. And the height of the paper towel is the same as the height of the cylinder.

You can find the volume of a cylinder using the following formula:

Now for a cylinder problem: