Surface Area of 3D Figures
Imagine unwrapping a 3D shape completely flat - that's the surface area! It tells you how much material would cover the entire outside of the solid. This is super useful for real problems like figuring out how much wrapping paper you need.
For a rectangular prism, find the area of each of the six faces and add them up. You can group similar faces together: front/back, left/right, and top/bottom. For example, a 3×4×6 inch box has a surface area of 108 square inches.
A triangular prism requires finding the area of its two triangular bases plus its three rectangular sides. Remember that a triangle's area is ½ × base × height! For the cylinder shown, with its triangular bases and rectangular sides, the total surface area is 336 square inches.
Remember: When finding a cylinder's surface area, don't forget both circular bases AND the curved side. The curved side is basically a rectangle with width equal to the cylinder's circumference!
For a cylinder, calculate the area of its two circular bases (πr²) and add the curved surface (2πrh). For a cylinder with radius 4 inches and height 10 inches, the total surface area is about 351.68 square inches.