volume

How much something three dimensional can contain or hold. Also a continuum of sound, ranging from quiet to loud and measured in decibels.

Volume is the space enclosed by a three dimensional body. To find out the volume of such a body, three factors are taken into account: height, width and depth.

Depending on the type of figure, there are different formulas for finding out volume. A rectangular prism has a volume equal to the product of its three dimensions. A sphere has a volume equal to four-thirds time pi times the radius cubed. The volume of a pyramid is equal to one-third the area of the base times the height. There are other formulas for such shapes as cylinders and ellipsoids, and using these basic formulas, and three-dimensional shape (such as the Sydney Opera House), can be broken down into basic shapes and its volume calculated.

While three dimensional geometry such as this is not actually that confusing, and only requires a middle school grasp of mathematics, the ramifications of volume are many and far reaching. Because volume has three factors, it can increase very rapidly, which is responsible for such important things as the square-cube law.

Vol"ume (?), n. [F., from L. volumen a roll of writing, a book, volume, from volvere, volutum, to roll. See Voluble.]

1.

A roll; a scroll; a written document rolled up for keeping or for use, after the manner of the ancients.

The papyrus, and afterward the parchment, was joined together [by the ancients] to form one sheet, and then rolled upon a staff into a volume (volumen). Encyc. Brit.

2.

Hence, a collection of printed sheets bound together, whether containing a single work, or a part of a work, or more than one work; a book; a tome; especially, that part of an extended work which is bound up together in one cover; as, a work in four volumes.

An odd volume of a set of books bears not the value of its proportion to the set. Franklin.

4.

Anything of a rounded or swelling form resembling a roll; a turn; a convolution; a coil.

So glides some trodden serpent on the grass, And long behind wounded volume trails. Dryden.

Undulating billows rolling their silver volumes. W. Irving.

4.

Dimensions; compass; space occupied, as measured by cubic units, that is, cubic inches, feet, yards, etc.; mass; bulk; as, the volume of an elephant's body; a volume of gas.

5. Mus.

Amount, fullness, quantity, or caliber of voice or tone.

Atomic volume, Molecular volume Chem., the ratio of the atomic and molecular weights divided respectively by the specific gravity of the substance in question. -- Specific volume Physics & Chem., the quotient obtained by dividing unity by the specific gravity; the reciprocal of the specific gravity. It is equal (when the specific gravity is referred to water at 4° C. as a standard) to the number of cubic centimeters occupied by one gram of the substance.

© Webster 1913.