Cuboids and cylinders

Last updated: 16 Nov 2008

There are only two 3D forms that you have to deal with in the GMAT and they are the cuboid (or 'box') and the cylinder (or 'tube'). For these forms you should know how to calculate their volumes and their surface areas.

Cuboid

Cuboid

Volume

The volume of a cuboid is easy to calculate just multiply length by width by height.

mathematical expression

Surface Area

A cuboid is made up of 6 surfaces the front and back, the top and bottom and the 2 ends. Simply calculate the area of each of these and add them up.

mathematical expression

Cylinder

Cylinder

Volume

The volume of a cylinder is the area of its base (a circle radius r) by height.

mathematical expression

Surface Area

To calculate the surface area of a cylinder we need to think about what surfaces make up a cylinder.

It has a top and a bottom which are both circles of radius r and the side can be formed from a rectangle of height h and width mathematical expression so that it stretches all the way round the circumference of the circles at the top and bottom.

To find the surface area of the whole we work out the area of each piece and add them together.

mathematical expression

Next page: Coordinate geometry

Comments (4):

  1. Are cubes tested on the GMAT?
    ie. V= s^3, SA=6s^2

    Anonymous on 11 Oct 2007 (permalink)

  2. Yes.

    joel on 14 Oct 2007 (permalink)

  3. Some more information would be better.

    Anonymous on 20 Oct 2007 (permalink)

  4. Can you be more specific about which part of geometry for the GMAT you want more information about?

    joel on 25 Oct 2007 (permalink)

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