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A sphere of radius r has surface area 4πr 2.. The surface area (symbol A) of a solid object is a measure of the total area that the surface of the object occupies. [1] The mathematical definition of surface area in the presence of curved surfaces is considerably more involved than the definition of arc length of one-dimensional curves, or of the surface area for polyhedra (i.e., objects with ...
The surface-area-to-volume ratio has physical dimension inverse length (L −1) and is therefore expressed in units of inverse metre (m-1) or its prefixed unit multiples and submultiples. As an example, a cube with sides of length 1 cm will have a surface area of 6 cm 2 and a volume of 1 cm 3. The surface to volume ratio for this cube is thus
Its volume would be multiplied by the cube of 2 and become 8 m 3. The original cube (1 m sides) has a surface area to volume ratio of 6:1. The larger (2 m sides) cube has a surface area to volume ratio of (24/8) 3:1. As the dimensions increase, the volume will continue to grow faster than the surface area. Thus the square–cube law.
A composite cube with a side of 2 has a volume of 8 units 3 but a surface area of only 24 units 2. A rectangular prism two cubes wide, one cube long and four cubes tall has the same volume, but a surface area of 28 units 2. Stacking them in a single column gives 34 units 2.
An approximation for the volume of a thin spherical shell is the surface area of the inner sphere multiplied by the thickness t of the shell: [2] V ≈ 4 π r 2 t , {\displaystyle V\approx 4\pi r^{2}t,}
Graphs of surface area, A against volume, V of all 5 Platonic solids and a sphere by CMG Lee, showing that the surface area decreases for rounder shapes, and the surface-area-to-volume ratio decreases with increasing volume. The dashed lines show that when the volume increases 8 (2³) times, the surface area increases 4 (2²) times.
The surface area A and the volume V of the rhombic dodecahedron with edge length a are: [4] ... the resulting 3D polyhedron is a rhombic dodecahedron. [10] ...
Graphs of surface area, A against volume, V of the Platonic solids and a sphere, showing that the surface area decreases for rounder shapes, and the surface-area-to-volume ratio decreases with increasing volume.