How do you calculate surface area to volume ratio of a cylinder?

1 Answer
Aug 10, 2014

Here are the formulas you'll need:

Surface area: #2πrh+2πr^2#

Volume: #πr^2h#

r is the radius of the cylinder and h is its height.

So for example, let's say you had a cylinder that had a radius of 3 cm and a height of 6 cm. For surface area, you would calculate:
#2π(3)(6)+2π(3)^2#, which will give you #54π#.

For volume, you would calculate:
#π(3)^2(6)#, which would give you #54π# as well.

Then you divide the surface area/volume, which here is simply 1.

One note is that the units for surface area would be #cm^2# whereas for volume they would be #cm^3#.

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