Surface area in the study of fractals. Extensions of the notion of area which partially fulfill its function and may be defined even for very badly irregular surfaces are studied in geometric measure theory. A specific example of such an extension is the Minkowski content of the surface. The below given formulas can be used to show that the surface area of a sphere and cylinder of the same radius and height are in the ratio 2 : 3, as follows. Let the radius be "r" and the height be "h" (which is 2"r" for the sphere). formula_7 The discovery of this
Menger sponge itself is the limit of this process after an infinite number of iterations. The "n"th stage of the Menger sponge, "M", is made up of 20 smaller cubes, each with a side length of (1/3). The total volume of "M" is thus (20/27). The total surface area of "M" is given by the expression 2(20/9) + 4(8/9). Therefore the construction's volume approaches zero while its surface area increases without bound. Yet any chosen surface in the construction will be thoroughly punctured as the construction continues, so that the limit is neither a solid nor a surface; it has a topological