Confectionery Awards

An Investigation

Photo courtesy of (@flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution

 Learning Objective
To be able to solve problems using volume and surface area.

Success Criteria
• Select and apply the correct formulae when calculating a value.
• Accurately substitute measurements into formulae.
 Starter
Have a look around the room for 3D shapes.

You may be able to find spheres, cylinders, cuboids,

other prisms, cones, pyramids, and frustums.

•What is the definition of a prism?

A 3D shape with uniform cross-section.

•Which of the following are prisms: cube, cone,

square-based pyramid, cylinder?
A cube and a cylinder.

•What is the definition of a frustum?

The portion of a cone or a pyramid which remains
after the top is removed (along a plane parallel to its
base).
 Marlon’s Sweets
Marlon has a bag of his favourite types of sweets.
He wants to award his sweets prizes; the awards will go to:

The sweet The sweet The sweet which

with the largest with the largest takes the longest
volume surface area : time to eat
volume ratio per cm3
 The Contenders
In the bag, Marlon has…
fruit candy rings

gobstoppers fruit pastilles

jelly fried eggs marshmallows

 Gobstoppers

Gobstoppers are spherical with

radius 0.8cm.

It takes Marlon 6 minutes to

finish a gobstopper.
 Fruit Pastilles

The fruit pastilles are cylinders, height 0.9cm and radius 0.7cm

He takes 1 minute 30 seconds to finish a fruit pastille.

 Fruit Candy Rings

Fruit candy rings are cylinders with a

smaller cylindrical hole punched out of
the centre of them. The radius of the
large cylinder is 0.8cm and its height is
0.5cm. The radius of the small cylinder
is 0.2cm.

Marlon takes 2 minutes to finish a

fruit candy ring.
 Marshmallows
The marshmallows are truncated
cones with a base radius of
1.5cm, a top radius of 1cm and a
height of 2.5cm.

Marlon takes 30 seconds to

finish a marshmallow.
Jelly Fried Eggs

The fried eggs are made from a

hemisphere of radius 0.5cm
attached to a cylinder of radius
1.3cm and height 0.3cm.

Marlon takes 1 minute to finish a

fried egg.
 Formulae
You will need the following formulae for volume and surface area and some
other formulae that you should already know.

Cone with radius r, height h and sloping height l:

V = ⅓πr2h

A = πrl + πr2

Sphere with radius r:

V = ⅓πr
4 3

A = 4πr2
 The Awards
Which sweet has the largest volume?

Which sweet has the largest surface area:volume ratio?

Which sweet takes longest time per unit volume for Marlon to consume?

Give your answers correct to 3 significant figures.

 Plenary
For the sweets with the largest surface
area:volume ratio, explain what it is
about their shapes that gives them a large
surface area: volume ratio.

Which object has the largest surface

area: volume ratio, a piece of paper or a
tennis ball?

Why is the function of a leaf suited to

having a large surface area: volume
ratio?

Think of some other objects with a large

surface area:volume ratio and why this
might suit their purpose.
Photo courtesy of (@flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence - attribution