Length, Width & Height | How to Read Dimensions | Smartick

Aug30

Dimensions: Length, Width, and Height of an Object

In today’s entry, we’re going to talk about length, width, and height as tools to find the dimensions of an object.

Length is a linear measurement, which means we can only use it to measure the distance separating two points.

In this case, we’ve measured the length between the tip of the cockpit and the back of the last coach.

However, the objects we use every day are not straight lines, so we can’t measure them in the same way. We need to use several different measurements to work out their dimensions.

For example, if we want to work out the dimensions of the sheet of paper inside this envelope, we need to measure two things: length and height.

We’ve taken two measurements from this envelope: length 16 cm and height 8 cm.

Two measurements are still not enough for the majority of the objects around us, because they are three-dimensional bodies. That means that we need three measurements, length, width, and height.

We’ve taken three measurements from this box: length 20 cm, width 10 cm, and height 15 cm.

Length, width, and height are measurements that allow us to indicate the volume of geometric bodies. The length (20 cm) and the width (10 cm) correspond to the horizontal dimension. On the other hand, the height (15 cm) refers to the vertical dimension.

We usually express these dimensions by writing them out separated by a multiplication sign. Therefore, when we go to buy a piece of furniture and we want to know its measurements, we can see the following on the box:

170 in (height) x 60 in (width) x 45 in (length)

I hope this entry has helped you learn how to measure the dimensions of objects in the world around you.

Don’t forget that you can register free with Smartick to do exercises involving units of measurement, how find LCM amongst many other things!

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