9.7: Composite Solids

Solids made up of two or more solids.

A composite solid is a solid that is composed, or made up of, two or more solids. The solids that it is made up of are generally prisms, pyramids, cones, cylinders, and spheres. In order to find the surface area and volume of a composite solid, you need to know how to find the surface area and volume of prisms, pyramids, cones, cylinders, and spheres. For more information on any of those specific solids, consult the concept that focuses on them. This concept will assume knowledge of those five solids.

Most composite solids problems that you will see will be about volume, so most of the examples and practice problems below are about volume. There is one surface area example as well.

What if you built a solid three-dimensional house model consisting of a pyramid on top of a square prism? How could you determine how much two-dimensional and three-dimensional space that model occupies?

Example \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Find the volume of the following solid.

Solution

Use what you know about cylinders and spheres. The top of the solid is a hemisphere.

\(\begin{aligned} V_{cylinder}&= \pi 6^{2}(13)=468 \pi \\ V_{hemisphere}&=12(\dfrac{4}{3} \pi 6^{3})=144 \pi \\ V_{total}&=468 \pi +144 \pi =612 \pi \text{ in}^{3} \end{aligned}\)

Example \(\PageIndex{2}\)

Find the volume of the base prism. Round your answer to the nearest hundredth.

Solution

Use what you know about prisms.

\(\begin{aligned} V_{prism}=B\cdot h \\ V_{prism}=(4\cdot 4)\cdot 5 \\ V_{prism}=80\text{ in}^{3}\end{aligned}\)

Example \(\PageIndex{3}\)

Find the volume of the solid below.

Solution

This solid is a parallelogram-based prism with a cylinder cut out of the middle.

\(\begin{aligned} V_{prism}=(25\cdot 25)30=18,750\text{ cm}^{3} \\ V_{cylinder}= \pi (4)^{2}(30)=480 \pi \text{ cm}^{3}\end{aligned}\)

The total volume is \(18750−480 \pi \approx 17,242.04 cm^{3}\).

Example \(\PageIndex{4}\)

Find the volume of the composite solid. All bases are squares.

Solution

This is a square prism with a square pyramid on top. First, we need the height of the pyramid portion. Using the Pythagorean Theorem, we have, \(h=\sqrt{25^{2}−24^{2}}=7\).

\(\begin{aligned} V_{prism}&=(48)(48)(18)=41,472\text{ cm}^{3} \\ V_{pyramid}&=\dfrac{1}{3}(48^{2})(7)=5376\text{ cm}^{3}\end{aligned}\)

The total volume is \(41,472+5376=46,848 cm^{3}\).

Example \(\PageIndex{5}\)

Find the surface area of the following solid.

Solution

This solid is a cylinder with a hemisphere on top. It is one solid, so do not include the bottom of the hemisphere or the top of the cylinder.

\(\begin{aligned}SA&=LA_{cylinder}+LA_{hemisphere}+A_{base\: circle} \\ &=2 \pi rh+\dfrac{1}{2}4 \pi r^{2}+ \pi r^{2} \\ &=2 \pi (6)(13)+2 \pi 6^{2}+ \pi 6^{2} \\ &=156 \pi +72 \pi +36 \pi \\ &=264 \pi in^{2}\end{aligned}\)

“LA” stands for lateral area.

Round your answers to the nearest hundredth. The solid below is a cube with a cone cut out.

The solid below is a cylinder with a cone on top.

Find the volume of the following shapes. Round your answers to the nearest hundredth.

The bases of the prism are squares and a cylinder is cut out of the center.

This is a prism with half a cylinder on the top.

Tennis balls with a 3 inch diameter are sold in cans of three. The can is a cylinder. Round your answers to the nearest hundredth.

To see the Review answers, open this PDF file and look for section 11.8.

Interactive Element

Video: Composite Solids Principles - Basic

Activities: Composite Solids Discussion Questions

Study Aids: Surface Area and Volume Study Guide

Practice: Composite Solids

Real World: Nature's Arches