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Exercise #4: Area & Volume

         area(10, 4)   40
    perimeter(10, 4)   28
     volume(10, 4, 5)   200
surfaceArea(10, 4, 5)   220

Area, perimeter, volume, and surface area are straightforward calculations. This exercise is similar to Exercise #2, “Temperature Conversion” and Exercise #3, “Odd & Even.” Each function in this exercise is a simple calculation and return statement. However, area and volume are slightly more complicated because they involve multiple parameters. This exercise continues to challenge you to translate mathematical formulas into Python code.

Exercise Description

You will write four functions for this exercise. The functions area() and perimeter() have length and width parameters and the functions volume() and surfaceArea() have length, width, and height parameters. These functions return the area, perimeter, volume, and surface area, respectively.

The formulas for calculating area, perimeter, volume, and surface area are based on the length (L), width (W), and height (H) of the shape:

·       area = L × W

·       perimeter = L + W + L + W

·       volume = L × W × H

·       surface area = (L × W × 2) + (L × H × 2) + (W × H × 2)

Area is a two-dimensional measurement from multiplying length and width. Perimeter is the sum of all of the four one-dimensional lines around the rectangle. Volume is a three-dimensional measurement from multiplying length, width, and height. Surface area is the sum of all six of the two-dimensional areas around the cube. Each of these areas comes from multiplying two of the three length, width, or height dimensions.

You can see what these formulas measure in Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1: The components of area, volume, perimeter, and surface area.

These Python assert statements stop the program if their condition is False. Copy them to the bottom of your solution program. Your solution is correct if the following assert statements’ conditions are all True:

assert area(10, 10) == 100

assert area(0, 9999) == 0

assert area(5, 8) == 40

assert perimeter(10, 10) == 40

assert perimeter(0, 9999) == 19998

assert perimeter(5, 8) == 26

assert volume(10, 10, 10) == 1000

assert volume(9999, 0, 9999) == 0

assert volume(5, 8, 10) == 400

assert surfaceArea(10, 10, 10) == 600

assert surfaceArea(9999, 0, 9999) == 199960002

assert surfaceArea(5, 8, 10) == 340

Try to write a solution based on the information in this description. If you still have trouble solving this exercise, read the Solution Design and Special Cases and Gotchas sections for additional hints.

Prerequisite concepts: math operators, operator precedence

Solution Design

Use the same strategy you used in Exercise #2, “Temperature Conversion” and translate the math formulas into Python code. Replace the L, W, and H with the length, width, and height parameters. Replace the + addition and × multiplication signs with the + and * Python operators. These functions can be one line long: a return statement that calculates the result and returns it.

Special Cases and Gotchas

Length, width, and height can only be positive numbers. You could write additional code that checks if any of these are negative numbers, and raise an exception in that case. However, this isn’t a requirement for this exercise.

Now try to write a solution based on the information in the previous sections. If you still have trouble solving this exercise, read the Solution Template section for additional hints.

Solution Template

Try to first write a solution from scratch. But if you have difficulty, you can use the following partial program as a starting place. Copy the following code from https://invpy.com/areavolume-template.py and paste it into your code editor. Replace the underscores with code to make a working program:

def area(length, width):

    # Return the product of the length and width:

    return ____ * ____

 

def perimeter(length, width):

    # Return the sum of the length twice and the width twice:

    return ____ * 2 + width * ____

 

def volume(length, width, height):

    # Return the product of the length, width, and height:

    return ____ * ____ * ____

 

def surfaceArea(length, width, height):

    # Return the sum of the area of each of the six sides:

    return ((length * ____) + (length * ____) + (width * ____)) * 2

The complete solution for this exercise is given in Appendix A and https://invpy.com/areavolume.py. You can view each step of this program as it runs under a debugger at https://invpy.com/areavolume-debug/.

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