Volume of a Cone: Geometry

The Voluminous “Vessel” at Hudson Yards

Calling all NYC dwellers! Have you seen the new structure at Hudson Yards?  A staircase to nowhere, this bee-hive like structure is for the true adventurists at heart; Clearly, I had to check it out!

Where does math come in here you say?  Well, during my exploration, I had to wonder (as am sure most people do) what is the volume of this almost cone-like structure? It seemed like the best way to estimate the volume here, was to use the formula for the volume of a cone!

What do you think the Volume is?

Volume of a Cone

Volume of a Cone:

I estimated the volume by using the formula of a three-dimensional cone. (Not an exact measurement of the Vessel, but close enough!) .

Volume of a Cone
Volume of a Cone

We can find the radius and height based on the given information above.  Everything we need for our formula is right here!

Volume of a Cone

Now that we have our information, let’s fill in our formula and calculate! 

Extra Tip! Notice that we labeled the solution with feet cubed Screen Shot 2019-04-14 at 4.53.49 PM.png, which is the short-handed way to write “feet cubed.”  Why feet cubed instead of feet squared? Or just plain old feet? When we use our formula we are multiplying three numbers all measured in feet:

radius X radius X (Height/3)

All three values are measured in feet! –> Feet cubed (Screen Shot 2019-04-14 at 4.53.49 PM.png)

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Did you get the same answer? Did you use a different method or have any questions?  Let me know in the comments and happy calculating! 🙂

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Looking to apply more math to the real world? Check out this post on the Golden Ratio here!

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