General Question

bhec10's avatar

How do I measure the length of the side of a cylinder?

Asked by bhec10 (6458points) November 21st, 2011

If I want to wrap a piece of paper around a bottle, how do I know the length the paper needs to be in order to fit correctly around the bottle? Is there a formula for that? If the diameter is 6,8cm (radius = 3,4cm) how long does the paper need to be?

Thanks in advance!

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10 Answers

bobbinhood's avatar

You just need to find the circumference of the circle.
C=2πr or C=πd

Lightlyseared's avatar

The term you’re looking for is circumference. Given that you know the diameter working out the circumference is trivial

bhec10's avatar

@bobbinhood & @Lightlyseared Circumference! That’s the word I was looking for! Thanks guys! And thanks for the formula ;)

janbb's avatar

Couldn’t the cricumference be different from the length from top to bottom?

bobbinhood's avatar

@janbb Absolutely. But the details gave me the impression that the OP was looking for the circumference, not the height.

Brian1946's avatar

If the diameter is 6,8 cm, then the paper has to be at least 21,362831 cm long to wrap all the way around the bottle.

janbb's avatar

@bobbinhood Yes, the question and the details don’t really match. You should need to know both actually to cut the paper.

gasman's avatar

Don’t forget to add the overlap where the ends of the paper join using tape, glue, etc.

cazzie's avatar

This is a piece of pi. Are we doing your homework?

bhec10's avatar

@cazzie No, this is not my homework. Just a normal question I had. But I got it fixed now. Thanks everyone

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