Surface Area Problems

1. Suppose you have one of the prisms below. You

can calculate the surface area by doubling one
area and tripling another and then adding them.
What prism am I talking about? How do you
know?

2. Decide whether each statement is sometimes,

always or never true when calculating the surface
area of a prism with a 4-sided base. Explain.
a) All the faces could have the same area.
b) At least two faces have to have the same area.
c) There could be exactly four faces with the
same area.

Try these on your own:

1. To determine the surface area of some shapes,
Othny performed the following calculations. What
might each shape have been? Explain your thinking.
a) 6 (7cm 7cm)
b) 2(3cm 5cm) + 2(3cm 7cm) + 2(7cm 5cm)
c) 2(5cm 12cm 2) + (5cm 8cm) + (13cm
8cm) + (12cm 8cm)
d) 2(6cm 5.2cm 2) + 3(6cm 6cm)

2. A rectangular box has a surface area of 52 cm2. What

might the length, width, and height of the box be?
*Make this problem into an algebraic equation.