Sphere Calculator
Calculate volume, surface area, radius, and diameter of a sphere from any known measurement. Perfect for geometry and engineering.
Distance from center to surface
Distance across sphere through center
Space inside the sphere
Area covering the sphere
What are the formulas for a sphere?
Surface Area = 4PIr^2 (four times the area of a circle). Volume = (4/3)PIr^3. Diameter = 2r. Circumference (great circle) = 2PIr. Where r is the radius and PI ≈ 3.14159. All formulas depend only on the radius.
How do I find the radius if I know the volume?
Rearrange volume formula: r = cbrt(3V/4PI). Example: Volume = 100 cm^3. r = cbrt(3*100/4PI) = cbrt(23.87) = 2.88 cm. Similarly, from surface area: r = sqrt(A/4PI).
What is the difference between surface area and volume?
Surface area is the 2D area covering the sphere's exterior (in square units like cm^2). Volume is the 3D space inside the sphere (in cubic units like cm^3). Example: A ball with r=5cm has surface area 314.16 cm^2 and volume 523.6 cm^3.
What are real-world examples of spheres?
Sports balls (basketball, soccer, golf), planets and moons, ball bearings, bubbles, water droplets, oranges, marbles, ball-shaped tanks, dome structures, molecular models, and spherical lenses. Many natural objects approximate spheres due to surface tension or gravity.
How do you measure a sphere in real life?
Measure diameter with calipers or measure circumference with flexible tape and divide by PI to get diameter, then radius = diameter/2. For irregular spheres, use water displacement to find volume, then calculate radius from volume formula.