The Compendium Geometry is an eBook providing facts, formulas and explanations about geometry.

Home Analytic Geometry 3D Solids Generalized Cylinder
See also: Prism 
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Generalized Cylinder

A generalized cylinder is generated by moving a straight line g along an arbitrary curve. A generalized cylinder need not to be closed and is sometimes called cylinder surface. A cylinder is called a right cylinder if its cross sections lie directly on top of each other; otherwise, the cylinder is said to be oblique.

The most common special case of a generalized cylinder is a right circular cylinder (or cylinder, for short). Prisms also are a special case of a closed generalized cylinder.

The volume V of the generalized cylinder is given by

V = Abh

with Ab being the area of the basis of the cylinder, and h being the height. The surface S of the (closed) cylinder is given by

S = 2Ab + mpcs

with pcs being the perimeter of the perpendicular cross section of the cylinder.

Home Analytic Geometry 3D Solids Generalized Cylinder

Last Update: 2010-12-06