Question

10 POINTS!

A triangular prism has a length of 5 inches, a base of 2 inches, a height of 2 inches, and sides of 2 inches and 3 inches. Find the surface area of the prism.

Please explain your answer. In the most simple way possible.

Answer 1

The three rectangular faces have area:
5 x 2 = 10
5 x 3 = 15
5 x 2 = 10
Total = 35

The two rectangular faces each have area of
(1/2) x 2 x 2 = 2
Total = 4

35 + 4 = 39

The answer is 39 square inches.

Answer 2

The triangular prism has 5 faces; two triangle faces and three rectangular faces.

We can find the area of one of the triangle faces by doing ((base * height) / 2). In this case, it would be ((2 * 2) / 2), which of course would equal 2"². Multiplied by two for the two triangles, which would be 4.

To find the area of one of the rectangles, we do (length * base), which would be (5 * 2) in our case, giving us 10. Multiply by 3 for the 3 faces, and we got 30"².

30 + 4 = 34"²