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Subsection 2.8.7 Volume of Spheres

Learner Experience 2.8.7.

\(\textbf{Orange Peeling Experiment}\)
  • Cut the orange in half and carefully peel the skin off in small sections.
  • Try flattening the peels and arrange them to see how they approximate a circle’s area.
    ♦ When you peel an orange and flatten the pieces, you can see that the peels cover a large area.
    ♦ This helps visualize why increasing the radius increases the overall amount of space the fruit takes up (its volume).
  • Cutting the Orange into Sections.
    ♦ If you cut an orange in half, you can see its cross-section.
    ♦ If you keep slicing it into smaller spheres, their individual radii determine their volumes.
  • Why do you think oranges or tomatoes or apples etc. are stacking in pyramidal stacks in the market?
    ♦ Oranges in a fruit market are often packed in pyramidal stacks because spheres fit together efficiently.
    ♦ The larger the radius, the more space each orange occupies, which directly affects storage and packaging.
  • Key takeaways
    ♦ The radius is the most important factor in determining the volume of a sphere.
    ♦ If the radius doubles, the volume increases by \(2^3 = 8\) times!
    ♦ This explains why a slightly bigger orange holds significantly more juice compared to a smaller one.
\(\textbf{Key Takeaway}\)
A sphere is a perfectly round object.

Example 2.8.42.

A sphere has a radius of 6 cm. Find its volume.
\begin{align*} \text{V} =\amp \frac{4}{3} \times \pi r^3\\ = \amp 3.142 \times \frac{4}{3} \times (6)^3\\ = \amp \frac {864}{3} \times 3.142 \\ = \amp 904.9 \, \text{cm}^3 \end{align*}

Example 2.8.43.

A football has a radius of 9 cm. What is the volume of the ball?
Solution.
\begin{align*} \text{V} =\amp \frac{4}{3} \times \pi r^3\\ = \amp 3.142 \times \pi\frac{4}{3} \times (9 \,\text{cm})^3\\ = \amp 3054.02\, \text{cm}^3 \end{align*}

Example 2.8.44.

A planet has a radius of 1000 km. What’s it’s volume?
Solution.
\begin{align*} \text{V} =\amp \frac{4}{3} \times r^3\\ = \amp 3.142 \times\frac{4}{3} \times (1000)^3\\ = \amp 4,189,333,333 4.19= \ 10^9\, \text{km}^3 \end{align*}

Exercises Exercises

2.

A bowl is in the shape of a hemisphere with a diameter of \(12\) cm. Find the volume of the bowl.
Answer.
\(452.39\;\text{cm}^3\)

3.

A sphere has a volume of \(500 \;\text{cm}^3\text{.}\) If the radius is doubled, what will be the new volume?
Sphere
Answer.
\(4000 \;\text{cm}^3\)

4.

A raindrop is modeled as a sphere with a radius of \(0.2\) cm. If a storm produces \(1,000,000\) raindrops, what is the total volume of water in liters?
Answer.
\(33.5\) litres

5.

A basketball has a radius of \(12\) cm, while a tennis ball has a radius of \(4\) cm. How many tennis balls can fit inside the basketball, assuming no empty space?
Answer.
\(27 \;\text{tennis balls}\)