An oil tanker train car is in the shape of a cylinder (on its side).

Question

An oil tanker train car is in the shape of a cylinder (on its side). The train car is 75 feet long and 8 feet 6 inches across (and so 8 feet 6 inches for the diameter). Approximate the capacity (volume of oil). Approximate the surface area of the ½ inch steel used to make the cylinder.

Answer 1

First try and draw a diagram for the scenario, do you know what a cylinder looks like?

Next, what information do we know from the scenario?

1. Length is 75 ft
2. Diameter is 8.5 ft

Do you know the formula to find the volume or surface area for a cylinder? (This is something you can look up if you are unsure)

What does each letter of each formula represent? How can we use the available information, like diameter to find the radius?

Now that you have written down what each variable represents and hopefully connected it to a piece of information in your word problem. Use substitution (replace each variable with the number it corresponds to) and find the surface area and volume.