Volume of a cuboid

A cuboid is similar to a cube, but its edges are not all the same length. Let’s look at a diagram to see what a cuboid looks like:

To work out the volume of this cuboid, we would multiply the length a by the length b, which gives the area of the base. We would then multiply this by the height of the cuboid, that is the length c. So the volume of a cuboid, which we call V, is given by the formula

$$V=a\cdot b\cdot c$$

If the cuboid above had edge lengths a = 6, b = 4, c = 3, its volume would be

$$V=6\cdot 4\cdot 3=72$$

If the lengths were in metres, this would be 72 cubic metres, written m³; if they were in centimetres, we would get 72 cubic centimetres, written cm³, and so on.

Calculator: work out the volume of a cuboid