September 8, 2009
No CommentsHow to Find the Surface Area of a Rectangular Prism
Description
This video displays how to find the surface area of a rectangular prism. The different parts of a rectangular prism are explained in detail. One sample problem is worked through in the video to show how to correctly apply the formula.
Overview
The surface area is the area of each side, or face, of the shape added together. Rectangular prisms have 6 sides, which consist of 3 pairs. This makes solving for a rectangular prism’s surface area a bit easier. In order to solve for the surface area, you need to solve for the area of each face seperately, first. All the faces of a rectangular prism are rectangles, so the area can be found using this formula: A = l * w. You only have to solve for this three times – the matching face (found exactly opposite of the one you solved for) will have the same area, so just multiply your result by 2. After doing this three times, add them all together. Your result is the surface area.
