Cubic units and volume of rectangular prism

Volume (how much space something takes) is measured in CUBIC units - which are simply little cubes. If the edges those cubes are 1 inch each, we have one cubic inch. If they are 1 cm each, we have a one cubic centimeter, and so on.

Then we look at the volume of a rectangular prism (box in common language). I show using actual blocks that we can find the total volume by first figuring out how many blocks are in the bottom row, and then multiplying that by the height, or how many layers of blocks there are. This then leads us to the familiar formula for the volume of a rectangular prism: simply multiply the three dimensions (width, depth, height, or could also be called length, width, height).

In the second part, we look at a variety of problems relating to the volume of a rectangular prism. First we simply find the volume of a rectangular prism when given its three dimensions. In the second problem we calculate the volume of a figure that consists of two rectangular prisms (maybe a building), in cubic feet.

And the last problem is a tad more challenging... find the height of a room when the volume and the floor area are known.

See also

Area and perimeter problems — video lesson for grades 5-6

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