How to Determine the Volume of a Scuba Tank

Determining the volume of objects helps you determine how much space is inside the object, which sometimes has very practical purposes. For instance, determining the volume of a SCUBA tank helps you determine how many gallons of oxygen it can hold. A SCUBA tank is cylindrical in shape, so it requires the completion of the cylinder equation to determine its volume in cubic feet.

Things You'll Need

SCUBA tank

Measuring tape

Calculator

Step 1

Determine the radius of the scuba tank by measuring the width (the length of the circular base) of the tank to find the diameter and then dividing the diameter by 2, which will give you the radius of the tank.

Step 2

Measure the height of the scuba tank (the length from the top to the bottom of the tank).

Step 3

Multiply the pi (3.14) by the radius squared (the radius multiplied by itself) by the height. For instance, a scuba tank with a radius of 5 and a height of 10 would result in the following: 3.14 X (5 X 5) X 10 = 785 cubic feet.

Tips

Convert cubic feet to gallons by multiplying cubic feet by 7.48, which is how many gallons are in one cubic foot.

Warnings

Beware of incorrectly calculating the diameter or incorrectly squaring the radius, for these mistakes will cause your ending product to be incorrect as well.