At One Place

Area and volume calculator

Area, perimeter, volume and surface area for the common shapes and solids.

How it works

Calculates area and perimeter for flat shapes, and volume and surface area for solids, with the formula shown alongside each result.

The relationship between area and volume when scaling is the thing worth internalising. Doubling every dimension quadruples the surface area and multiplies the volume by eight. This is why large animals overheat less easily than small ones, why a pile of sand collapses at a fixed angle regardless of size, and why scale models never behave like the real thing.

Formulas are shown rather than hidden, because the point is usually to check working rather than to get a number.

This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to a server, logged or stored, and the page keeps working with the network disconnected.

Common questions

What happens to volume when you double the size?
It multiplies by eight, while surface area only quadruples. That square-cube relationship governs a great deal of engineering and biology.
What is the difference between surface area and area?
Area is a flat measurement; surface area is the total of all faces of a three-dimensional solid, including curved ones.

Related pages

Sources

  1. Calculated on this page — At One Place

How these figures are compiled and checked