Units of area and volume

The area of a 2D shape is the amount of space inside it.

Area is measured in square millimetres (mm²), square centimetres (cm²), square metres (m²) and square kilometres (km²).

Capacity or is the amount a object can hold.

The standard units of volume are litres (l), millilitres (ml), cubic metres (m³), cubic centimetres (cm³) and cubic millimetres (mm³).

A gold bar is a cuboid measuring 5 cm by 10 cm by 8 cm. It is melted down and made into cubes with edges of length 2 cm. How many cubes can be made?

The volume of the cuboid is: \(5 \times 10 \times 8 = 400~\text{cm}^\text{3}\)

The volume of one cube is: \(2 \times 2 \times 2 = 8~\text{cm}^\text{3}\)

The number of cubes = \(\frac{\text{volume of the large cuboid}}{\text{volume of one cube}}\)

The number of cubes = \(\frac{400}{8} = 50\)

50 cubes can be made.

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