ZingPath: Volume and Surface Area of Prisms and Pyramids

The volume of a three-dimensional figure is a measure of the space it occupies. Volume is measured in cubic units. A rectangular prism is a three-dimensional figure that has rectangular bases.

Volume of a prism V is the product of the area of its base B (l x w) and the height. The formula for the volume of a rectangular prism is

V = B x h or V = l x w x h

In this Activity Object, students will use V = l x w x h. Provide students with a several example problems using whole numbers less than ten for each of the dimensions to ensure that students can solve volume of rectangular prism problems.

A cube is used in this Activity Object. A cube is a rectangular prism in the same way that a square is a rectangle. Be sure students realize that a cube is also a rectangular prism whose dimensions are the same length. Therefore, its volume is found by multiplying the length of any dimension by itself twice.

• base (b) - any side or flat surface of the object
• cube - a rectangular prism whose length, width, and height are the same number of units
• dimension - a measure of length, width or height
• height (h) - the perpendicular distance to the base
• length (l)- the distance along a line or shape from one point to another
• prism - a figure made of two parallel faces that are polygons of the same shape and sides that are parallelograms
• rectangular prism - a prism whose base is a rectangle
• volume - the measure of the amount of space inside of a solid figure
• width (w)- the horizontal measurement to the length