Calculations at a generalized cylinder. This is a right cylinder with any plain, closed surface as base. This base surface occurs twice in the body; both base surfaces are congruent and parallel to each other. They lie directly above each other, neither shifted nor twisted.
Enter two values at height, base area and volume (h, B, V) and/or two values at height, perimeter and lateral surface (h, l, L) or at base area, lateral and surface area (B, L, A). Choose the number of decimal places, then click Calculate.
Formulas:
V = B * h
L = l * h
A = L + 2 * B
Height and perimeter have the same unit (e.g. meter), the areas have this unit squared (e.g. square meter), the volume has this unit to the power of three (e.g. cubic meter). A/V has this unit -1.
The surface area calculated with this calculator only applies to cylinders with bases without a hole. For cylinders with a hole, so-called hollow cylinders, the surface area of the cylinder resulting from the hole must be added. A separate calculator is available for the case of a cylindrical shell.
A right cylinder with a polygon as its base is a right prism. A right prism is a polyhedron, in contrast to a right cylinder, in which the base has one or more curved lines.
The right cylinder is mirror-symmetrical to the plane that passes through its center and is parallel to both bases. Further symmetries can arise from the symmetries of the bases.
A special form of the right cylinder is the elliptic cylinder, in which the base is an ellipse. The half cylinder and the cylindrical sector are also each right cylinders, as is the cylindrical segment. Analogously, cylinders can of course be formed from all possible flat surfaces as a base. A more specific example is the shape referred to here as an arch (bridge).