Surface Area Of Cylinders Worksheet

Surface area of cylinders at a glance

Surface area is a measure of the total area of all of the faces of a 3D shape. A cylinder has 3 faces, two circular ends joined by a curved surface, which once unfolded is a rectangle. We know that the area of a circle is given by πr^2 , where r is the radius of the circle.

If we were to draw a net of a cylinder, the curved surface in the middle would open up to a rectangle with height h , the height of the cylinder, and length 2πr , the circumference of the circular base. For this reason, the curved surface area (also called lateral surface area) of a cylinder is given by 2πrh .

The total surface area of the cylinder is found by adding the areas of the three faces to give text{Surface area} = 2π(r^2)+2πrh . 

Surface area of a cylinder is measured in square units such as cm^2 or mm^2 . We might be asked to give an answer in terms of pi or to round to a given number of decimal places or significant figures.

Looking forward, students can then progress to additional surface area worksheets and other geometry worksheets, for example a simplifying expressions worksheet or simultaneous equations worksheet.

For more teaching and learning support on Geometry our GCSE maths lessons provide step by step support for all GCSE maths concepts.