“is it a bucket?” artwork by author. License: public domain.

Question: Why aren’t buckets proper cylinders? Why are they instead shaped as frustums—_cones with the bottom cut off?
_Answer: Because frustum buckets stack within one another thereby saving space. Saved space means more buckets per unit volume, than corresponding regular cylinders. This translates to reduced costs.

Welcome to Costs Matter, a series that asks different questions all of which have the same answer: to better manage costs. The costs are frequently economic though not always. The series focuses narrowly on the impact of costs. It does not claim these costs are the sole cause. To read more in the series, visit https://medium.com/galileo-onwards/costs/home.

A frustum is an upside-down cone whose pointy end has been cut off. The following animated gif helps illustrate its construction.

How to make a frustum. Animation generated by author. License: public domain.

Why do manufacturers prefer frustums over right cylinders?

Frustum shaped buckets can be placed inside one another thereby saving space. When space is saved manufacturers can store more buckets in the same space than they could with regular cylinders. The same holds for wholesalers. For shippers, this means the same transport vehicles carry more units per volume than with other shapes. These correspondingly lead to reduced costs.

Buckets can be stacked as shown in the image below.

Stacked buckets save space. Source: https://www.thriftyfun.com/tf89159682.tip.html

The question that follows is: why are right cylinders even manufactured? Who’s asking for cylinders and why?

That, dear reader, will be answered in next week’s Costs Matter post.

Image generated by author using figlet. License: public domain.