Length, Width & Height | How To Read Dimensions - Smartick

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 heightare 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!

Learn More:

• Learn More about Measurements of Length
• Learn to Solve Measuring Problems
• The Concept of Length and How It’s Different from Distance
• Practice Length Measurement Problems
• Review of All Units of Measurements

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SmartickContent Creation Team.A multidisciplinary and multicultural team made up of mathematicians, teachers, professors and other education professionals! They strive to create the best math content possible. Latest posts by Smartick (see all)

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