Lesson 3

Lesson 3: Working with Formulas for Surface Area

 

Focus

 

Spherical tanks are often used to store volatile petroleum products. One advantage of a spherical tank is that it minimizes the surface area for a given volume, which in turn minimizes the transfer of heat from the outside of the tank to its contents. Another advantage of this design is that spherical tanks have no built-in weak spots; the pressure from the contents is distributed equally across the tank’s interior, making this design ideal for high-pressure storage.

 

In this lesson you will explore formulas for determining surface areas of various geometric shapes, including spheres, and you will apply these formulas to solve a variety of real-world problems.

 

Lesson Questions

• What are the common formulas for surface area, including the formula for the sphere?
  
  
• How can surface area formulas be manipulated to solve for other dimensions?

Assessment

 

Your assessment for this lesson may include a combination of the following:

• course folder submissions from the Try This and Share sections of the lesson
  
  
• your contribution to the Mathematics 20-3: Glossary Terms and the Formula Sheet
  
  
• Lesson 3 Assignment (Save a copy of your lesson assignment to your course folder now.)

Materials and Equipment

• calculator