Density Cylinder Calculator - Mass, Radius & Height

A density cylinder calculator turns a cylinder's mass and one geometric measurement into a density in any common unit. Enter the mass, choose whether you know the radius and height or the direct volume, and the calculator returns rho = m / (pi r^2 h) in kg/m^3, g/cm^3, lb/ft^3, or lb/in^3.

• • Classroom and Lab Density Problems: Solve physics and chemistry homework that asks for the density of a metal cylinder, plastic rod, or glass tube given its mass, radius, and height.
• • Material Identification by Density: Compare a measured cylinder density with reference tables for aluminum (about 2.7 g/cm^3), steel (about 7.85 g/cm^3), oak (about 0.75 g/cm^3), or PVC (about 1.4 g/cm^3) to identify what the cylinder is made of.
• • Quality Control for Cast Cylinders: Use a cast concrete cylinder or test coupon to verify that a batch meets the design density of about 2400 kg/m^3.
• • Capacity and Mass Estimation: Estimate how heavy a filled cylindrical storage tank, water pipe, or gas cylinder will be once you know its dimensions and the density of the contents.

Density is one of the most useful intensive properties in physics because it tells you how tightly matter is packed into a given space, regardless of the size of the cylinder. The right cylinder is the cleanest shape for introducing the concept because every measurement comes from one radius and one height.

If you would rather compute the cylinder's volume on its own first and then divide by mass yourself, our cylinder volume calculator returns V = pi r^2 h from radius and height in any common unit.

The density cylinder calculator combines rho = m / V with the cylinder's volume formula V = pi r^2 h. It first converts the entered mass to kilograms and the radius and height to meters, computes the volume, divides to get the SI density, then rescales to the selected display unit.

• rho: Density of the cylinder, reported in the unit you select (kg/m^3, g/cm^3, lb/ft^3, or lb/in^3).
• m: Mass of the cylinder, converted internally to kilograms regardless of the entry unit.
• r: Radius of the cylinder's circular base, recovered from the radius and length unit selectors and stored in meters.
• h: Height of the cylinder, measured perpendicular to the base and stored in meters.
• V: Volume of the cylinder, equal to pi r^2 h in cubic meters, or entered directly when direct volume is selected.

When the direct volume mode is selected, the calculator skips the geometry step and divides mass by volume directly. All conversions use fixed NIST factors (1 lb = 0.45359237 kg, 1 in = 0.0254 m), so switching units never changes the underlying density.

According to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the SI unit of density is the kilogram per cubic meter (kg/m^3), 1 g/cm^3 equals 1000 kg/m^3, and the imperial convention is pound per cubic foot (lb/ft^3), with 1 lb/ft^3 equal to about 16.018 kg/m^3.

If you ever switch from a cylindrical sample to a cubic one, our cube density calculator applies the same rho = m / V idea to V = a^3 so the workflow stays consistent.

Four concepts are enough to interpret any cylinder density result, from the units on the screen to how radius and height feed the volume formula.

These concepts appear in nearly every introductory physics and chemistry textbook. Knowing that density is intensive and that volume scales with the square of the radius prevents the common error of treating rho as if it depended on r^2.

For non-cylindrical solids or liquids, our density calculator accepts any mass and volume pair and returns the density in the unit you need.

Use the density cylinder calculator in five short steps, switching between radius-and-height and direct volume without re-entering data.

1. 1 Enter the Mass: Type the cylinder's mass into the Mass field and pick kilograms, grams, pounds, or ounces in the Mass Unit selector.
2. 2 Choose the Known Measurement: Pick radius and height when you have a ruler or caliper, or switch to direct volume if the volume is already known.
3. 3 Enter Radius and Height, or Volume: In radius-height mode, fill the Radius and Height fields. In direct-volume mode, fill the Cylinder Volume field.
4. 4 Pick the Length or Volume Unit: Use Length Unit for radius and height (mm, cm, m, in, ft), or Volume Unit for direct volume (m^3, L, cm^3, ft^3, in^3).
5. 5 Pick a Density Display Unit: Choose kg/m^3, g/cm^3, lb/ft^3, or lb/in^3, then read the live density, mass, volume, and radius.

A quality-control engineer weighs a cast concrete cylinder at 3.92 kg with a radius of 5 cm and height of 10 cm. The calculator reports V = 785.4 cm^3 and rho = 4,991 kg/m^3, well above the design value of about 2,400 kg/m^3, flagging a likely aggregate mix issue.

If your cylinder is hollow like a pipe or test tube, our hollow cylinder volume calculator handles the inner-radius correction so the density estimate reflects the actual material volume.

A density cylinder calculator removes the unit-conversion algebra that usually slows down density problems.

• • Accepts Either Dimensions or Volume: Enter radius and height or a direct volume; the calculator recovers the volume automatically.
• • Switch Units Without Re-entering Numbers: Mass (kg, g, lb, oz), length (mm, cm, m, in, ft), volume (m^3, L, cm^3, ft^3, in^3), and density (kg/m^3, g/cm^3, lb/ft^3, lb/in^3) are all selectable.
• • Built-in Reference for Common Materials: Compare the result with water (1000 kg/m^3), concrete (2400 kg/m^3), aluminum (2700 kg/m^3), steel (7850 kg/m^3), or oak (about 750 kg/m^3) to identify the cylinder's material.
• • Self-Checking Readouts: Mass, Volume, and Radius result cards appear alongside Density so each step can be verified.

These benefits show up whenever a cylinder is the simplest available shape for the measurement.

To work the other direction once you know the cylinder's density, our volume to mass calculator converts a measured volume back into a mass using the same kg/m^3 conversion factors.

Three measurable factors control the precision of your cylinder density result, and two practical limits apply to any cylinder density estimate.

• • The calculator assumes a solid right cylinder with uniform density. Real cast and machined cylinders can vary by 1 to 5% between the surface and the core.
• • Oblique cylinders use the same formula as long as h is measured perpendicular to the base; if you measure h along the slanted side, the calculated density will be wrong.

These factors and limits apply to any solid cylinder density estimate.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, density is the mass of a unit volume of a material substance, expressed as mass divided by volume.

For multi-component cylinders such as alloys or composites, our mass percent calculator resolves the density result into the mass percentage of each constituent.