Question

Consider the rectangular prism with length 5 in., width 8 in., and height 9 in.

Will tripling one of the dimensions of the rectangular prism triple the surface area of the prism? Justify your response.

Answer 1

No, the only thing it would triple is the area of some of the sides. If you tripled 5 for example the new SA would be 654. That is not 314 tripled.
But it would triple the area of the two bases that length 8 and width 5 have. However tripling one dimension only affects two things, the two areas it makes with either the width, length, or height