Cylinder Lateral Surface Area

  1. Kyle's Converter >
  2. Calculators >
  3. Geometry >
  4. Cylinder Lateral Surface Area

Cylinder Lateral Surface Area Calculation:

  •  r =

    Radius of the cylinder, half the width across the widest part of the circular end

  •  h =

    Height of the cylinder, distance between the two round ends

  •  A =

    Area of the cylinder lateral surface area in square units

  •

    Choose the number of decimals to show in your answer. This is also known as significant figures. Select an appropriate amount of significant figures based on the precision of the input numbers.

Please share if you found this tool useful:

Cylinder Lateral Surface Area Formula

Imagine a cylinder as a typical can, now unroll that can and discard the top and bottom, the remaining bit is the lateral surface area. As an unrolled piece we are given a rectange but as part of a cylinder we have the radius to work with. The length of the part before being unrolled is the circumference of the circular part of the cylinder, multiply that by the height and we have the surface area of the lateral part of a cylinder:

A = 2π * r * h

Cylinder Lateral Surface Area Variables

Given a cylinder we must know the radius and height to calculate the surface area of the lateral portion:

Radius (r)
This is half the distance across the widest part of the cylinder.
Height (h)
This is the length of the cylinder.

You may also calculate the surface area of the entire cylinder with the same inputs by adding in the area of the end circles using the cylinder surface area calculator.

Need help converting area to other units?

Area unit converts