Volume of rectangular prisms

Volume of rectangular prisms review

Review the basics of volume and try some practice problems.

What is volume?

Volume is the amount of 3-dimensional space an object occupies. Volume is measured in cubic units.
For example, the rectangular prism below has a volume of 18 cubic units because it is made up of 18 unit cubes.
Want to learn more about the concept of volume? Check out this video.

Finding volume of a rectangular prism

To find the volume of a rectangular prism, we multiply the length of the prism by the width of the prism by the height of the prism.
V, o, l, u, m, e, space, o, f, space, r, e, c, t, a, n, g, u, l, a, r, space, p, r, i, s, m, equals l, e, n, g, t, h, times, w, i, d, t, h, times, h, e, i, g, h, t
Want to learn more about finding volume of rectangular prisms? Check out this video.

Example 1:

V, o, l, u, m, e, equals, l, e, n, g, t, h, times, w, i, d, t, h, times, h, e, i, g, h, t
empty space, equals, 3, times, 2, times, 3
empty space, equals, 18, space, c, u, b, i, c, space, u, n, i, t, s

Example 2:

V, o, l, u, m, e, equals, l, e, n, g, t, h, times, w, i, d, t, h, times, h, e, i, g, h, t
empty space, equals, 6, times, 5, times, 7
empty space, equals, 210, space, c, u, b, i, c, space, u, n, i, t, s

Practice set 1: Finding volume by multiplying

Problem 1A
What is the volume of the rectangular prism?
  • Your answer should be
  • an integer, like 6
  • a simplified proper fraction, like 3, slash, 5
  • a simplified improper fraction, like 7, slash, 4
  • a mixed number, like 1, space, 3, slash, 4
  • an exact decimal, like 0, point, 75
  • a multiple of pi, like 12, space, p, i or 2, slash, 3, space, p, i
c, m, start superscript, 3, end superscript

Explain
Want to try more problems like this? Check out this exercise: Volume 1

Practice set 2: Finding volume with unit cubes

Problem 2A
Unit cube:
What is the volume of the rectangular prism?
  • Your answer should be
  • an integer, like 6
  • a simplified proper fraction, like 3, slash, 5
  • a simplified improper fraction, like 7, slash, 4
  • a mixed number, like 1, space, 3, slash, 4
  • an exact decimal, like 0, point, 75
  • a multiple of pi, like 12, space, p, i or 2, slash, 3, space, p, i
unit cubes

Explain
Want to try more problems like this? Check out these exercises:
Volume with unit cubes 1
Volume formula intuition

Practice set 3: Challenge items

Problem 3A
The figure below is made up of 2 rectangular prisms.
What is the volume of this figure?
  • Your answer should be
  • an integer, like 6
  • an exact decimal, like 0, point, 75
  • a simplified proper fraction, like 3, slash, 5
  • a simplified improper fraction, like 7, slash, 4
  • a mixed number, like 1, space, 3, slash, 4
c, u, b, i, c, space, c, m

Explain
Want to try more problems like this? Check out these exercises:
Decompose figures to find volume
Volume word problems