How to find the volume of rectangular prisms

A demonstration on how to find the volume of rectangular prisms

1Bottom FrontBottom Side

3Can you find a quick way to find the number of cubes on the first level? Yes, multiply the number of cubes on the bottom front times the number of cubes on the bottom side.4 units7 units

4Bottom FrontBottom SideSo there are 28 cubes on the first level of this prism. Now all that needs to be done is take that number times the number of levels in the prism. In other words, the height of the prism.

528 X 3 = 84 cubic units

6So when calculating the volume of a rectangular prism, multiply the bottom edges to find the number of cubes on the bottom level, then multiply that number by the height to find the total number of cubes in the prism.

7When we break this strategy down even more, it really becomes the product of the 3 dimensions of the prism. Multiplying two of the dimensions gives us the number of cubes on one level, and then multiplying by the 3rd dimension, is multiplying by the height of the prism.

8In our example, we multiplied the bottom front of 4, times the bottom side of 7, times the height of 3. This gave us the volume of the prism as 84 cubic units.4 units7 units3 units

9Notice that rotating the prism, will not change the volume, because you are still multiplying the same three dimensions, but just in a different order.7 units4 units3 units

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