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If the surface area of a sphere is doubled, how will the volume get affected

User Brk
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Hello from MrBillDoesMath!

Answer: the volume of the sphere increases by a factor of 2 * (2^(1/2)) or about 2.8


Discussion:


From Plane Geometry

Surface Area of a Sphere of radius "r" = 4 * Pi * r^2

Volume of a Sphere of radius "r" is (4/3)* Pi * r^3

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Suppose the sphere with surface area "A" has radius "r1". Suppose further that the sphere with surface area "2A" has radius "r2". Then

4 * Pi * r1^2 = A and

4 * Pi * r2^2 = 2A


Divide the bottom equation by the top one to get

( 4* Pi * r2^2 ) / (4 * Pi * r1^2 ) = r2^2/ r1^2 = (r2/r1) ^2

This ratio also equals (2A)/A = 2. We conclude that

(r2/r1) ^ 2 = 2 or

r2/r1 = 2 ^ (1/2) (this is the square root of 2)

r2 = 2^ (1/2) * r1

Now let's look at the volume

Consider the volume of the sphere with surface area 2A.

V =

(4/3) * Pi * r2^3 =

(4/3) * Pi * ( 2 ^ (1/2) * r1) ^3 = (write r2 in terms of r1)

(4/3) * Pi * (r1 ^3) * (2^ (1/2)) ^3


As (2^(1/2))^3 is the square root of 2 cubed (which equals 2 times the square root of 2), the last equation becomes

( (4/3) * Pi * r1^3) * (2 * 2 ^ (1/2) )


Note the boldfaced equation above is the volume of the original sphere of surface area A. So doubling the surface area causes the volume to increase by the factor 2 * 2^(1/2) which is about 2.8.


Regards, MrBill