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Sphere facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
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An image of a sphere

A sphere is a shape in space that is like the surface of a ball. Most of the time, the terms ball and sphere are used as the same. But in mathematics, the precise (exact) definition only allows points in the 3 dimensional space which are uniformly and symmetrically located at a fixed length called radius of the sphere.

Examples of these are basketballs, superballs, and playground balls.

A sphere is the 3 dimensional analogue of a circle.

Volume

The volume (V) of a sphere is given by the following formula

\!V = \frac{4 \pi r^3}{3}

where r is the radius of the sphere.

Surface area

The surface area (A) of a sphere is given by the following formula

\!A =4 \pi r^2

where r is the radius of the sphere.

Equation of a sphere

In Cartesian co-ordinates, the equation for a sphere with a center at (x0, y0, z0) is as follows:

(x-x_0)^2 + (y-y_0)^2 + (z-z_0)^2 = r^2

where r is the radius of the sphere.

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Esfera para niños

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