The Commercial Enterprise of Surface Area and Volume
Our world has developed into an expansive network of consumers and producers, thriving and free market policies. Now that worldwide delivery systems are quick and accessible to the growing population, efficient packaging is imperative to all commercial enterprises alike. Using the basic concepts of surface area and volume, companies are able to minimize packaging materials, saving money, space, and materials, while withholding maximized profit.
Obviously, using a 3 by 3 (in feet) box to hold a packet of gum is not efficient, and 500 ft of carpet is more than enough for a 1, 20 by 10 room, but these are issues (gross exaggeration of them) that manufacturers have to consider when producing and transporting their products. Surface area and volume calculation can be applied to many various real-life situations in industry and commerce.
Think about your room at home. The paint over your walls was at some point packaged and transported to your local supplier. People in charge of packaging had to figure out a reasonable range of bucket sizes that would hold an efficient volume of paint, taking into consideration the average amount needed to cover the buildings in need of a paint job, the type of paint it is, and the price demand.
In pharmaceutics, the manufacturers have to consider the volume of medicine (and the type of medicine, the safe amount of dosage in one type of medicine, can be lethal in another)in order to properly capsulize it.
When packaging, the advertisement stickers that go over the package of the products must also be appropriated to fit the surface area of the packaging, whether it be a box or a bag.
These are only a few examples out of many. As our world develops, new problems and situations arise that need different, efficient solutions. Nonetheless, many of these issues can be resolved using this simple, fundamental concept.