Calculate the volume of rectangular prisms, or find a missing length when provided with the volume and area of one face. Start with calculating the number of unit cubes that fit inside a rectangular prism, and progress to deriving the formula for volume, V=Area of Base x H = (L x W) x H.
Generalize from the area of a rectangle to the area of the base of a rectangular prism. How many unit cubes can fit in the bottom layer? Multiply the number of rows by the number of unit cubes in each row. Master multiplication facts, develop spatial reasoning, and lay the groundwork for calculating volume. Prerequisites: 2-21
Generalize from finding the side length of a rectangle, to finding the number of rows of unit cubes in a rectangular prism's base. If 24 cubes fit in the bottom layer of a rectangular prism and there are 6 cubes in each row, how many rows are there? Divide by grouping or use multiplication to find the number of rows. Prerequisites: 3-100
Generalize from length and area, to measuring volume – the number of unit cubes that fit inside a rectangular prism. Multiply length times width to get the area of the prism's base. Then scale the area of the base by the prism's height to get the prism's volume. Derive the formula for volume, V = Area of Base x H = (L x W) x H. Prerequisites: 3-100