Printable · GCSE Foundation · ages 14-16
Area of 2D shapes and volume of prisms worksheet — GCSE Foundation
Fifteen questions on "area of 2d shapes and volume of prisms" — DfE statement G16. Print it, or print three versions so neighbours cannot copy by letter; the key gives the letter for each version.
Area of 2D shapes and volume of prisms worksheet — GCSE Foundation
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- 1.A fish tank is a cuboid measuring 40 cm long, 25 cm wide and 30 cm high. Water is poured in to a depth of 20 cm. Work out the volume of water in the tank, in litres.
- 2.A water tank is a cube with edges of length 2 m. Work out how many cubic centimetres the tank holds when it is full.
- 3.A cylinder has a radius of 3 cm and a height of 10 cm. Using π = 3.14, work out the volume of the cylinder. Give your answer to the nearest whole number of cubic centimetres.
- 4.A square tile has sides of length 6 cm. Work out the area of the tile.
- 5.A solid cube has a volume of 8 cm³. Work out the length of one edge of the cube.
- 6.A cuboid-shaped shipping crate has a length of 12 m, a width of 5 m, and a volume of 360 m³. Work out the height of the crate, in metres.
- 7.A rectangular photograph has an area of 96 cm². One of its sides is 8 cm long. Work out the length of the other side.
- 8.A parallelogram has an area of 84 cm² and a base of 12 cm. Work out the perpendicular height of the parallelogram.
- 9.A cylinder has a radius of 5 cm. Its volume is 471 cm³. Using π = 3.14, work out the height of the cylinder.
- 10.A wooden block is a cuboid measuring 2 cm by 10 cm by 15 cm. Work out the volume of the block.
- 11.A wooden cube has edges of length 4 cm. Work out the total surface area of the cube.
- 12.A trapezium has parallel sides of 5 cm and 11 cm, and a perpendicular height of 4 cm. Work out the area of the trapezium.
- 13.In triangle ABC the base BC is 10 cm long and the sloping side AB is 13 cm long. The perpendicular height from A down to BC is 12 cm. Work out the area of triangle ABC.
- 14.A parallelogram has a base of 9 cm and a perpendicular height of 6 cm. Work out the area of the parallelogram.
- 15.A garden flower bed is in the shape of a trapezium. Its two parallel edges are 3.5 m and 6.5 m long, and the perpendicular distance between them is 4 m. Bedding plants cost £2.50 per square metre to cover the bed. Work out the total cost of the bedding plants.
Answer key
- (a) 20 litres — Volume of water = length × width × depth of water = 40 × 25 × 20 = 20 000 cm³. Since 1000 cm³ = 1 litre, divide by 1000: 20 000 ÷ 1000 = 20 litres. A pupil who uses the full height of the tank, 30 cm, instead of the water depth, 20 cm, gets 40 × 25 × 30 = 30 000 cm³ = 30 litres. A pupil who forgets to convert cm³ to litres at all gives 20 000 litres. A pupil who divides by 1000 twice by mistake gets 20 000 ÷ 1000 ÷ 1000 = 0.02 litres. The correct volume of water is 20 litres.
- (a) 8,000,000 cm³ — Method: change the edge length into centimetres first and then cube it, because 1 m = 100 cm and a volume needs that conversion applied to all three dimensions. Working: 2 m = 2 × 100 = 200 cm, so the volume is 200 × 200 × 200. 200 × 200 = 40,000 and 40,000 × 200 = 8,000,000. Answer: 8,000,000 cm³. The distractors: 8,000 cm³ comes from converting 2 m to 20 cm and cubing that; 80,000 cm³ comes from cubing in metres to get 8 m³ and then multiplying by 10,000, the conversion factor for an area rather than the 1,000,000 a volume needs; 8 cm³ comes from cubing the 2 without converting at all and simply writing cm³ because the question asked for that unit.
- (d) 283 cm³ — Volume of a cylinder = πr²h. Using π = 3.14: V = 3.14 × 3² × 10 = 3.14 × 9 × 10 = 282.6, which rounds to 283 cm³. A pupil who uses the diameter, 6 cm, instead of the radius gets 3.14 × 6² × 10 = 1130.4 ≈ 1130 cm³. A pupil who forgets to square the radius gets 3.14 × 3 × 10 = 94.2 ≈ 94 cm³. A pupil who uses the circumference formula 2πr instead of πr² gets 2 × 3.14 × 3 × 10 = 188.4 ≈ 188 cm³. The correct volume is 283 cm³.
- (c) 36 cm² — Method: the area of a square is its side length multiplied by itself. Working: 6 × 6 = 36. Answer: 36 cm². The distractors: 24 cm comes from working out the perimeter, 4 × 6, which is a length and not an area; 12 cm comes from doubling the side, 6 × 2, instead of squaring it; 18 cm² comes from halving the product, (6 × 6) ÷ 2, using the rule for the area of a triangle.
- (b) 2 cm — Method: the volume of a cube is edge × edge × edge, so finding the edge from the volume means undoing a cube, not a square or a halving. Working: edge × edge × edge = 8; testing whole numbers, 1 × 1 × 1 = 1 is too small and the next whole number gives 2 × 2 × 2 = 8, which matches. Answer: 2 cm. The distractors: 8 cm comes from writing the volume down as the edge length and changing only the unit; 4 cm comes from halving the volume, 8 ÷ 2, as though a cube were undone by dividing by 2; 2.83 cm is the square root of 8, from taking a square root where a cube root is needed.
- (b) 6 m — Volume of a cuboid = length × width × height, so height = volume ÷ (length × width) = 360 ÷ (12 × 5) = 360 ÷ 60 = 6 m. A pupil who divides the volume by the length only gets 360 ÷ 12 = 30 m. A pupil who divides the volume by the width only gets 360 ÷ 5 = 72 m. A pupil who subtracts length × width from the volume instead of dividing gets 360 − 60 = 300 m. The correct height is 6 m.
- (b) 12 cm — Method: the area of a rectangle is one side multiplied by the other, so when the area and one side are known the other side is found by reversing that multiplication — divide the area by the side that is known. Working: 96 ÷ 8 = 12. Answer: 12 cm. The distractors: 88 cm comes from 96 − 8, subtracting the known side as though the area had been made by adding the two sides together; 768 cm comes from 96 × 8, running the area rule forwards on the two numbers given instead of reversing it; 40 cm comes from reading the 96 as a perimeter — halving it to 48 and taking the 8 cm side away — which reverses the perimeter rule rather than the area rule.
- (d) 7 cm — Area of a parallelogram = base × height, so height = area ÷ base = 84 ÷ 12 = 7 cm. A pupil who multiplies instead of dividing gets 84 × 12 = 1008 cm. A pupil who divides the base by the area instead of the area by the base gets 12 ÷ 84 ≈ 0.14 cm. A pupil who mistakenly halves the area first, as if this were a triangle, gets (84 ÷ 2) ÷ 12 = 3.5 cm. The correct height is 7 cm.
- (d) 6 cm — Volume = πr²h, so height = volume ÷ (πr²) = 471 ÷ (3.14 × 25) = 471 ÷ 78.5 = 6 cm. (30 cm comes from dividing by πr instead of πr², missing one factor of the radius; 150 cm comes from dividing by π only, without using r² at all; 24 cm comes from treating the given 5 cm as a diameter and using a radius of 2.5 cm instead.)
- (d) 300 cm³ — Method: the volume of a cuboid is length × width × height. Working: 2 × 10 = 20, then 20 × 15 = 300. Answer: 300 cm³. The distractors: 27 cm³ comes from adding the three edges, 2 + 10 + 15, instead of multiplying them; 400 cm² comes from working out the surface area, 2 × (2 × 10 + 2 × 15 + 10 × 15) = 400, which answers a different question and carries a different unit; 150 cm³ comes from multiplying 10 × 15 and leaving the 2 cm edge out of the calculation altogether.
- (a) 96 cm² — Method: a cube has six identical square faces, so the total surface area is six times the area of one face. Working: one face has area 4 × 4 = 16 cm², and 6 × 16 = 96. Answer: 96 cm². The distractors: 16 cm² is the area of a single face, from stopping before multiplying by the six faces; 64 cm³ comes from working out the volume, 4 × 4 × 4, which is a different measure and carries a different unit; 24 cm² comes from multiplying the six faces by the edge length, 6 × 4, instead of by the area of a face.
- (a) 32 cm² — Area of a trapezium = 1/2 × (sum of parallel sides) × height = 1/2 × (5 + 11) × 4 = 1/2 × 16 × 4 = 32 cm². (64 cm² comes from forgetting to halve the product; 44 cm² comes from using only the longer parallel side, 11 × 4, instead of both parallel sides; 20 cm² comes from adding all three given lengths together, 5 + 11 + 4, instead of using the area formula.)
- (b) 60 cm² — Method: the area of a triangle is half the base multiplied by the perpendicular height, and here the perpendicular height is the 12 cm, not the sloping side. Working: 10 × 12 = 120, then 120 ÷ 2 = 60. Answer: 60 cm². The distractors: 65 cm² comes from using the sloping side of 13 cm as the height, (10 × 13) ÷ 2; 120 cm² comes from using the right two lengths but forgetting to halve, 10 × 12; 78 cm² comes from taking 13 cm and 12 cm as the base and the height and ignoring BC altogether, (13 × 12) ÷ 2.
- (b) 54 cm² — Area of a parallelogram = base × perpendicular height = 9 × 6 = 54 cm². (27 cm² comes from halving the product as if it were a triangle, 1/2 × 9 × 6; 15 cm² comes from adding the base and height instead of multiplying, 9 + 6; 30 cm² comes from doubling the sum of the base and height, as if finding a perimeter, 2 × (9 + 6).)
- (d) £50 — Area = 1/2 × (3.5 + 6.5) × 4 = 1/2 × 10 × 4 = 20 m². Cost = 20 × £2.50 = £50. (£100 comes from forgetting to halve the trapezium area, giving 40 m² instead of 20 m²; £65 comes from using only the longer parallel side, 6.5 × 4 = 26 m², instead of the trapezium formula; £35 comes from adding all three given lengths, 3.5 + 6.5 + 4, and treating that total as the area in square metres.)
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