How do you work out the surface area of a cylinder?

Okay so to work out the surface area of any 3D shape, you should look at the area of every surface on the shape individually. I would then draw a cylinder. First, we can work out the area of this circle (I would label a circle from the cross section of my drawn cylinder), which is pi * r squared. Now, we will work out the area of this shape here (I would label the panel in the middle). In order to do this, we multiply the circumference of our circle by the height of our cylinder - so we get pi * 2r * h. The last surface is the same as the first one, so is just pi * r. Finally, we add all of these together and have our answer.

One thing I struggled on particularly at GCSE was remembering the equations for area and circumference of circles - until I found this song which springs into my head whenever a question pops up like this: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuV1puxGMZQ'. 

Answered by Ollie N. Maths tutor

3330 Views

See similar Maths GCSE tutors

Related Maths GCSE answers

All answers ▸

How do you solve simultaneous equations


A ball, dropped vertically, falls d metres in t seconds. d is directly proportional to the square of t. The ball drops 45 metres in the first 3 seconds. How many metres does the ball drop in the next 7 seconds?


A right-angled triangle has an adjacent of (x + 1) and (x - 1). (a) Find the length of the hypotenuse in terms of x. (b) Explain why the triangle can't be an isoceles triangle.


y = p x q^(x - 1), When x = 1, y = 10, and when x = 6, y = 0.3125. Find the value of 'y' when x = 3


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

© MyTutorWeb Ltd 2013–2025

Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy
Cookie Preferences