The surface area of a rectangular prism is the sum of the areas of each side, and the volume of a rectangular prism is its length times width times height. Once you understand that a rectangular prism includes some sets of identical shapes, it's much easier to find its surface area and volume. Rectangular Prism Volume and Surface Area With volume, your answer should be in terms of units squared. Let's use this formula to determine the volume of this prism, which must be expressed in cubic centimeters (cm³): The following is the calculation formula for surface area of a rectangular prism: S 2 × (W × L + L × H + H × W). So to get the final volume, you must multiply the height of the rectangular prism by the area of the base. We have been working on volume in my high school equivalency class, but we haven’t discussed surface area yet. The area of the base is the length times the width. As a result, the bases of this prism must be rectangles. It has six sides, each of which is rectangular. A three-dimensional shape is a rectangular prism. Volume is the amount of space that a three-dimensional figure takes up. A rectangular prism’s surface area is expressed as the total region or area covered by all of the faces of the prism.
#SURFACE AREA OF 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. Surface Area and Volume of a Rectangular Prism. The shape of each face is more like a parallelogram than a perfect rectangle. 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. Non-Right (Oblique) Rectangular Prism: The faces of such a prism are not at right angles to the bases. 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. l x w + h x l + l x w + h x l + w x h + w x h 2(l x w) + 2 (h x l) + 2 (w x h) 210 x 8 + 8 x 9 + 9 x 10 2 80 + 72 + 90 2 x 242 484 cm. 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: 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: