Volume

1. Volume alcorn

2. What is it? • Volume is the measure of the space a solid figure occupies. • I tell kids it’s the inside space of a 3-d shape. • Examples of volume are the inside of a box, the amount of water in a fish tank, and the amount of sand in a sandbox. • Volume can be found using the formula Volume = Length X width x height.

3. Finding the volume Volume = length X width X height 4 X 5 x 10 = ? I can multiply 4 X 5 or 5 X 10 or 4 X 10 first. It doesn’t matter because I’ll get the same answer either way. That’s commutative property in action! I’ll just do the 4 X 5 first. 4 X 5 = 20 Don’t forget to multiply the 10! 20X 10 = ? One of my favorite shortcuts in math is using the zeroes. Multiply the 2 and 1. You get 2. Then add up all the zeroes. You have two, so put two zeroes on the end. The answer is 200 m3 • This is usually pretty easy…if you can multiply. Just multiply the three measurements together. • Don’t forget to cube the measurement and place it to the right of your answer. That means put a small three up high to the right of the unit (measurement).

4. Volume with Cubes? 3 cubes 3 cubes 4 cubes • Sometimes you’ll need to find the volume of a rectangular prism (That’s a box) and the measurements are missing! Oh no! Don’t panic. You can count the cubes to find the measurements. • Some people like to count all the cubes. I say do it either way as long as you get the correct answer and you can explain what you did. I need to find my three measurements. If I count the cubes I’ll see there’s a 4, 3, and 3. So, I’ll plug these measurement into the formula for volume (V = L X W X H). My equation is 4 X 3 X 3 = ? I like to work from left to right, so I’ll do 4 X 3 = 12. I can’t forget to do the 3! 12 X 3 = ? The answer is 36. The unit (measurement) isn’t listed, so I’ll use cubes. My final answer is 36 c3.