Volume Calculator

What It Does

This calculator turns a solid's dimensions into the space it holds. Choose a box (rectangular prism), a cylinder or a sphere, enter the dimensions that solid needs in millimetres, centimetres, metres, inches, feet or yards, and it applies the matching formula: length × width × height, π × r² × h, 1/3 × π × r² × h for a cone, 4/3 × π × r³, or π × r² × h + 4/3 × π × r³ for a capsule. The volume comes back in the unit you measured in, cubed, with cubic metres, litres, cubic feet and US gallons beside it; a dimension that is zero, negative or missing is rejected and reported rather than read as a side of length nought.

Real-World Usage

Volume answers how much a container holds or how much material fills a space: a carton, a water tank, a tin, a pipe, a skip or the air of a room. Ordering is where the counterparts earn their place — the same tank is 24,000 L to a metric supplier and 6,340 US gallons to an imperial one — and the litres figure converts straight to weight for anything filled with water, at one kilogram per litre.

Local Context

Metric readers work in cubic metres and litres, where 1 m³ is exactly 1000 L and a litre is a cubic decimetre; US readers work in cubic feet and US liquid gallons (231 cubic inches, 3.785411784 L). The imperial gallon of 4.54609 L is deliberately not reported: one figure labelled gallon has to mean one thing on a page that serves every country, and this one is the US gallon.

Which solid should I choose — box, cylinder or sphere?

A box (rectangular prism) covers cartons, rooms, fridges and anything with three sides at a right angle. A cylinder covers a can, a tank, a length of pipe or a round column, and it asks for a radius and a height. A sphere covers a ball, a balloon or a dome and asks for a radius only, because every point on it lies the same distance from the centre. The form shows just the fields the solid you picked uses.

Why does the volume come back cubed, and what are the other figures?

Volume is a length multiplied by a length multiplied by a length, so the unit is cubed: a box of 2 m × 3 m × 4 m is 24 m³, and the same numbers in feet give 24 ft³. Beside the result sit the counterparts: 24 m³ = 24,000 L exactly (1 m³ = 1000 L) = 847.552 ft³ = 6,340.13 US gallons. The gallon is the US liquid gallon, 3.785411784 L.

Where does the height go on a cylinder, and why has a sphere none?

The cylinder's height is measured straight up from its circular base, perpendicular to it, and the volume is the base area π × r² multiplied by that height: a cylinder of 2 m radius and 5 m height holds π × 2² × 5 = 62.8319 m³. A sphere has no base and no height — its volume is 4/3 × π × r³, so a sphere of 2 m radius is 33.5103 m³, and the one field it asks for is that radius.

What happens if I leave a field empty or type a negative number?

The field is refused: a solid with a missing, zero or negative side is not a solid, so the calculator reports no volume instead of treating the row as a zero and handing back a figure that looks valid. The result stays at 0 with the unit named, the field is marked, and nothing is computed from an impossible shape.