Finding The Volume of Laptops

Objective

Students will calculate the volume of laptops throughout history using the formula for the volume of a rectangular prism.

Steps

1. Find five laptops from across history (this Wikipedia page is a nice starting point) and jot down essential information..
2. Calculate the volume of their five laptops, estimating them as rectangular prisms.
3. Pick their two favorite laptops and sketch them using this triangular dot grid paper to create accurate, 3d scaled drawings.
4. Explore shapes with equivalent volumes. They will redistribute the volume of one of their laptops into a new, 3D shape. Same volume but different dimensions.
5. Finally, students will build two of their sketches: the laptop's original dimensions and then a model of the reconfigured dimensions with an equivalent volume. Naturally, they can continue extending this idea by finding equivalent volumes of other items or building on the marketing of their "new laptop design."

Resources

• Worksheet Part 1 (PDF)
• Worksheet Part 1 (Google Slides)
• Triangular Grid Paper (PDF)