Problem of the Month: March 2022

Last week, our Minnesota United FC played their first home game of the 2022 season at Allianz Field! Meanwhile, in the ACES classroom, our students have been practicing their algebra and calculating the volume of standard shapes. For your March Problem of the Month, celebrate the beginning of the soccer season and see if you can the find the volume of a sphere!

Major League Soccer matches use a standard size 5 soccer ball with a diameter of 22 centimeters. Using the formula for the volume of a sphere , can you calculate the volume of a soccer ball?

Scroll down to see the solution! (Hint: You can approximate Pi to 3.14)

Step 1

Write the formula to find volume of a sphere.

V  =  4/3 · πr^3 

Step 2: 

We know that the diameter of the soccer ball is 22 centimeters. But to calculate volume, we need the radius, r, of the soccer ball.

r  =  diameter / 2

r  =  22/2

r  =  11

Step 3 : 

Substitute π ≈  3.14 and r = 11 in the equation for the volume of a sphere.

V ≈  4/3 · 3.14 · 11^3

Simplify.

V ≈  4/3 · 3.14 · 1331

V ≈  5,572.5

Thus, the volume of the soccer ball is about 5,572.5 cubic cm.