What is the first step to find the volume of a vertical cylinder?

To find the volume of a vertical cylinder, the first step involves getting the area of the base. The base of a cylinder is a circle, and the area of a circle is calculated using the formula ( A = \pi r^2 ), where ( r ) is the radius. This area is crucial because the volume of the cylinder is derived from this base area multiplied by the height of the cylinder. Therefore, obtaining the area first lays the groundwork for this calculation.

While measuring the height, determining the base radius, or assessing the depth are all necessary components of the overall process, they come after establishing the area of the base. Each of these measurements plays an important role in the final volume computation, but understanding the area is foundational to deriving the volume formula, which is given by ( V = A \times h ), where ( A ) is the area of the base and ( h ) is the height of the cylinder.