Pythagoras2

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What is the relationship between the area of a sphere and the curved area of the cylinder into which it will just fit...
Height and width of cylinder each equal to the diam' of the sphere...
:?:
 
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Depends on the size of the sphere, I think.....

Surface area of a sphere = 4 pi r^2
Surface area of cylinder = pi r^2 h = pi r^2 2r (in this case)

So the sphere's surface area is 2/r times larger than that of the cylinder....

(EDIT: Toasty's answer reveals what I have just written to be complete nonsense - please ignore it)
 
Interesting,

So the surface area of the sphere is 4.pi.r^2
The area of the cylinder's curved surface is height.2.pi.r
but height = 2r so the area is 4.pi.r^2

So they are the same!! :LOL:

Nice puzzle, I never realised that.
-Dan
 
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Blimey DiyIF bit complex that !
Here is a calc'. http://www.1728.com/diam.htm

More to come Toasty..
Cylinder circumference = Pi x diameter
Sphere diam = 2 x radius = 2r = Cylinder diam = cylinder height (h)

Area inner face of cylinder Pi x d x h
In terms of the sphere Pi x 2r x 2r = 4.Pi.r² OR pi.d²

The area of the sphere and the cylinder are equal.

Take the 'contact' to cylinder, line (circle) around the sphere as the 'equator' ... any cut parallel to this marks a zone of the sphere, this area is equal to the corresponding part of the cylinder.

SpherCyl.jpg

See the red radius line?
What if the Earth were a perfect sphere and the angle from the equator was about 23.5° (North or up) The Sine of 23.5° is approx 0.3987 So the area of the sphere within the zone would be 0.3987 of the total area.
I think that might be close to a tropical zone maybe Tropic of Cancer or Northern tropic...
:D
 
Perhaps if you say "Box section" as opposed to cylinder it may not confuse?
 
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