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The surface are of a rectangular prism is 95 square centimeters. What is the surface area of a similar prism with dimensions that are 4 times as great as the original prism?

User Lindlof
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You should have had this answered long before now. Since to get any area of a prism, you must multiply two dimensions together. If they increase by a measure of 4, what happens. I think I'll ignore the 95 for a minute and just make up my own example.

Suppose you have a rectangular prism that measures 2 * 4 * 6.
You have 2 faces that are 2*4 which is 8*2 = 16
You have 2 faces that are 2*6 which is 12*2 = 24
You have 2 faces that are 4*6 which is 2*23 = 48
Now the total surface area is 48 + 24 + 16 = 88

Now briefly what happens you you increase each dimension by 4? it becomes 8 * 16 * 24
Two faces with 8 by 16 is 128 * 2 = 256
Two faces with 8 by 24 is 192 * 2 = 384
Two faces with 16 by 24 is 384 * 2 = 768
The total area of this figure is 1408. Just how many times bigger is this than 88. It should be 16 times bigger. Is it?

1408 / 88 = 16. It is.

Now to your question. If the sample is 95 cm^2 then the new prism should be 16 times bigger.

95 * 16 = 1520 cm^2 <<<< answer to your question.

User Penni
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