Question

Over 1.2 million square feet of travertine stone from Italy was used to construct the Getty Museum. It was mined in large slabs that measured 6 meters high, 12 meters wide, and 2 meters deep. Find the surface area of one of these slabs.

The surface area is
square meters.

Answer 1

The surface area is 216 m².

The surface area is the sum of the areas of each face of the slab. We have two faces whose dimensions are 12 by 2; two faces whose dimensions are 6 by 2; and two faces whose dimensions are 12 by 6.

12(2) = 24; 24*2 = 48
6(2) = 12; 12*2 = 24
12(6) = 72; 72*2 = 144

The sum of these is

48+24+144 = 216.