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NRICH topics: Measuring and calculating with units Volume and capacity

Resources tagged with: Volume and capacity

Content type:
Age range:
Challenge level:

There are 51 NRICH Mathematical resources connected to Volume and capacity, you may find related items under Measuring and calculating with units.

Broad Topics > Measuring and calculating with units > Volume and capacity

Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Pouring Problem

What do you think is going to happen in this video clip? Are you surprised?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Colourful Cube

A colourful cube is made from little red and yellow cubes. But can you work out how many of each?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Compare the Cups

You'll need a collection of cups for this activity.

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Bottles (2)

In this activity focusing on capacity, you will need a collection of different jars and bottles.

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Bottles (1)

For this activity which explores capacity, you will need to collect some bottles and jars.

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Changing Areas, Changing Volumes

How can you change the surface area of a cuboid but keep its volume the same? How can you change the volume but keep the surface area the same?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Place Your Orders

Can you rank these sets of quantities in order, from smallest to largest? Can you provide convincing evidence for your rankings?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Fill Me Up

Can you sketch graphs to show how the height of water changes in different containers as they are filled?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Thirsty?

Can you lay out the pictures of the drinks in the way described by the clue cards?

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Next Size Up

The challenge for you is to make a string of six (or more!) graded cubes.

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Growing Rectangles

What happens to the area and volume of 2D and 3D shapes when you enlarge them?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Immersion

Various solids are lowered into a beaker of water. How does the water level rise in each case?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Maths Filler

Imagine different shaped vessels being filled. Can you work out what the graphs of the water level should look like?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Cuboid Challenge

What's the largest volume of box you can make from a square of paper?

Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Thousands and Millions

Here's a chance to work with large numbers...

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

All in a Jumble

My measurements have got all jumbled up! Swap them around and see if you can find a combination where every measurement is valid.

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Oh! Harry!

A group of children are using measuring cylinders but they lose the labels. Can you help relabel them?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Funnel

A plastic funnel is used to pour liquids through narrow apertures. What shape funnel would use the least amount of plastic to manufacture for any specific volume ?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Cola Can

An aluminium can contains 330 ml of cola. If the can's diameter is 6 cm what is the can's height?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Efficient Cutting

Use a single sheet of A4 paper and make a cylinder having the greatest possible volume. The cylinder must be closed off by a circle at each end.

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Sending a Parcel

What is the greatest volume you can get for a rectangular (cuboid) parcel if the maximum combined length and girth are 2 metres?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Three Cubes

Can you work out the dimensions of the three cubes?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Making Boxes

Cut differently-sized square corners from a square piece of paper to make boxes without lids. Do they all have the same volume?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Cylinder Cutting

An activity for high-attaining learners which involves making a new cylinder from a cardboard tube.

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Chocolate Cake

If I don't have the size of cake tin specified in my recipe, will the size I do have be OK?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

More Pebbles

Have a go at this 3D extension to the Pebbles problem.

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Uniform Units

Can you choose your units so that a cube has the same numerical value for it volume, surface area and total edge length?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Brimful 2

Which of these infinitely deep vessels will eventually full up?

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Maths Filler 2

Can you draw the height-time chart as this complicated vessel fills with water?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

At the Pumps

How will you find out how much a tank of petrol costs?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Zin Obelisk

In the ancient city of Atlantis a solid rectangular object called a Zin was built in honour of the goddess Tina. Your task is to determine on which day of the week the obelisk was completed.

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Cuboid-in-a-box

What is the smallest cuboid that you can put in this box so that you cannot fit another that's the same into it?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

All Wrapped Up

What is the largest cuboid you can wrap in an A3 sheet of paper?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Tubular Stand

If the radius of the tubing used to make this stand is r cm, what is the volume of tubing used?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Sliced

An irregular tetrahedron has two opposite sides the same length a and the line joining their midpoints is perpendicular to these two edges and is of length b. What is the volume of the tetrahedron?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Conical Bottle

A right circular cone is filled with liquid to a depth of half its vertical height. The cone is inverted. How high up the vertical height of the cone will the liquid rise?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow star
Article Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Mouhefanggai

Imagine two identical cylindrical pipes meeting at right angles and think about the shape of the space which belongs to both pipes. Early Chinese mathematicians call this shape the mouhefanggai.

Age 14 to 16
Article Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Volume of a Pyramid and a Cone

These formulae are often quoted, but rarely proved. In this article, we derive the formulae for the volumes of a square-based pyramid and a cone, using relatively simple mathematical concepts.

Age 11 to 14
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

The Genie in the Jar

This jar used to hold perfumed oil. It contained enough oil to fill granid silver bottles. Each bottle held enough to fill ozvik golden goblets and each goblet held enough to fill vaswik crystal spoons. Each day a spoonful was used to perfume the bath of a beautiful princess. For how many days did the whole jar last? The genie's master replied: Five hundred and ninety five days. What three numbers do the genie's words granid, ozvik and vaswik stand for?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

More Christmas Boxes

What size square should you cut out of each corner of a 10 x 10 grid to make the box that would hold the greatest number of cubes?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

In a Spin

What is the volume of the solid formed by rotating this right angled triangle about the hypotenuse?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Concrete Calculation

The builders have dug a hole in the ground to be filled with concrete for the foundations of our garage. How many cubic metres of ready-mix concrete should the builders order to fill this hole to make the concrete raft for the foundations?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Plutarch's Boxes

According to Plutarch, the Greeks found all the rectangles with integer sides, whose areas are equal to their perimeters. Can you find them? What rectangular boxes, with integer sides, have their surface areas equal to their volumes?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Boxed In

A box has faces with areas 3, 12 and 25 square centimetres. What is the volume of the box?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Reach for Polydron

A tetrahedron has two identical equilateral triangles faces, of side length 1 unit. The other two faces are right angled isosceles triangles. Find the exact volume of the tetrahedron.

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

2D-3D

Two circles of equal size intersect and the centre of each circle is on the circumference of the other. What is the area of the intersection? Now imagine that the diagram represents two spheres of equal volume with the centre of each sphere on the surface of the other. What is the volume of intersection?

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Plane to See

P is the midpoint of an edge of a cube and Q divides another edge in the ratio 1 to 4. Find the ratio of the volumes of the two pieces of the cube cut by a plane through PQ and a vertex.

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Double Your Popcorn, Double Your Pleasure

We went to the cinema and decided to buy some bags of popcorn so we asked about the prices. Investigate how much popcorn each bag holds so find out which we might have bought.

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

The Big Cheese

Investigate the area of 'slices' cut off this cube of cheese. What would happen if you had different-sized block of cheese to start with?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Multilink Cubes

If you had 36 cubes, what different cuboids could you make?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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