#VOLUME OF A RECTANGULAR PRISM HOW TO#

The area of the base is the length times the width. Volume is the amount of space that a three-dimensional figure takes up.

#VOLUME OF A RECTANGULAR PRISM HOW TO#

Now that we know how to find the surface area, let's move on to finding the volume of the rectangular prism. If you need a refresher about the order of these calculations, remember the order of operations through the acronym PEMDAS ( here’s how this works).įor surface area, always keep your answer in square units. Let's use this formula to find the surface area of the rectangular prism below: Here is the formula for the surface area of a prism: The surface area of a rectangle in prism form is the sum of the areas of all six shapes.

The length, width, and height of a rectangular prism are made by six separate shapes that, when put together, creates a three-dimensional figure. Let's review the surface area of a rectangle. How to Find the Surface Area of a Rectangular Prism Let's learn how to find the surface area and volume of a rectangular prism. Other examples of prisms include triangular prisms, square prisms, and polygon prisms: Before looking at the answers, try your hand at both! See if you get the right answers.How do you determine rectangular prism volume and surface area? Let's start by defining what this shape is.Ī rectangular prism is a three-dimensional shape with two identical rectangular faces and one identical square face: Practice using these surface area word problems for rectangular prisms and cubes. Though 12,150 c m 2 sounds like a lot, it is only 1.215 m 2, so you have plenty of storage wrap to protect the Cube and its priceless contents of cube roots. You have 2 m 2 of their records dating back to 1960. Let's build our equation for surface area of a rectangular box starting with our cube formula:Īs is your club's tradition, you will use the Permanent Records of the Club Elders to wrap the prized Cube Root Cube. The cube has 12 congruent edges, each 45 c m. You also have to wrap the math club's vaunted Cube Root Cube for summer storage. Now lets look at how to find the surface area of a right rectangular prism, box, or cube. Sure, even if you leave a little extra for overlap, since you have 0.375 m 2 and only need 0.27 m 2! (Did you know only 10 books were in the box? 😲) Surface Area of a Rectangular Box You have a sheet of gift wrap that is 0.75 m × 0.5 m. Though that sounds like a lot of gift wrap, it is only 0.27 m 2. Let's build our equation for surface area of a rectangular prism starting with our formula: Use the area formula to find out the minimum amount of gift wrap you will need. (Do you know how many books are in the box? 😊) The box contains 100 books of math jokes, so it is a good-sized rectangular prism. You have been asked to wrap a gift box your mathematics club will give to your math club adviser. How To Find The Surface Area Of A Rectangular Prism If you have trouble remembering that special formula, you can always use the general one for rectangular prisms. Any two measurements will give the area of one face, and the cube has six faces, so the area is 6 a 2. This works because every dimension of a cube - width, height, and length - is the same. We can simplify that by factoring out the 2: We can use common abbreviations for width ( w), length ( l) and height ( h) and recast the formula: You must know the width, length and height of the prism before you can apply this formula:Ī = 2 ( w i d t h × l e n g t h ) + 2 ( l e n g t h × h e i g h t ) + 2 ( h e i g h t × w i d t h ) Surface Area Of A Rectangular Prism Formulaįinding surface area for all rectangular prisms (including cubes) involves both addition and multiplication. When you have a cube, finding the area of one face allows you to find the total surface area of the solid very quickly, since it will be six times the area of one face. The surface area of a rectangular prism is the total area of all six faces. What Is The Surface Area Of A Rectangular Prism? Opposite faces are congruent.Ī special type of rectangular prism is a cube, in which all six faces are congruent. All six faces meet at right angles to one another. Surface Area Of A Rectangular Prism What Is A Rectangular Prism?Ī rectangular prism is a six-faced, three-dimensional solid in which all the faces are rectangles. How To Find The Surface Area Of A Rectangular Prism.Surface Area Of A Rectangular Prism Formula.What Is The Surface Area Of A Rectangular Prism?.

Finding the surface area of all rectangular prisms allows you to also find the surface area of any cube, since a cube is a type of rectangular prism.

Volume of a rectangular prism