Surface of revolution never negative, the area is given by If the curve is described by the function , , then the integral becomes for revolution around the -axis, and for revolution around the "y"-axis (using ). These come from the above formula. For example, the spherical surface with unit radius is generated by the curve , , when ranges over . Its area is therefore For the case of the spherical curve with radius , rotated about the -axis A minimal surface of revolution is the surface of revolution of the curve between two given points which minimizes surface area. A basic
Steinmetz solid bicylinder describes a total of 8 pyramids. The volume of the cube (red) minus the volume of the eight pyramids (blue) is the volume of the bicylinder (white). The volume of the 8 pyramids is: formula_12, and then we can calculate that the bicylinder volume is formula_13 The intersection of three cylinders whith perpendicularly intersecting axes generates a surface of a solid with vertices where 3 edges meet and vertices where 4 edges meet. The set of vertices can be considered as the edges of a rhombic dodecahedron. The key for the determination of volume and surface area is the