Fundamentals of Refrigeration: Volume

Volume is the amount of space that something occupies and is calculated by multiplying the area of an object by its height. Since it is a cubic measurement, the units used to measure volume are often cubed. Examples include inches cubed, feet cubed, and meters cubed. Other common volume units are gallons and liters, which are widely used when measuring liquid volume.

To calculate the volume of a rectangular prism, simply multiply the length by the width by the height.

 

Example: If there is a room that is 15 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 10 feet high, the volume of the room is 1,800 cubic feet.

Calculating the volume of a cylinder is the same principle, but slightly more difficult since the area is circular. The equation is pi times radius squared times the length.

Example: To calculate the volume of the pipe with a 1-foot diameter that is 20 feet long, first calculate the radius. Since radius is always one-half of the diameter, the radius of the pipe is half a foot. Now multiply the numbers together to determine that the volume is 15.7 cubic feet.