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34 votes
Henry stores the arrowheads he has found in a box the shape of a rectangular prism. The box is 14 inches long, 12 inches wide and 2 inches high. He plans to paint the exterior of the box. How many square inches does he have to paint? 2 in. 14 in. 12 in.

Henry stores the arrowheads he has found in a box the shape of a rectangular prism-example-1
User Alyson
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1 Answer

26 votes
26 votes

Side areas

The box in the image has six sides, each one consisting of rectangles

Note the sides come in pairs of equal areas

For example, the front and the back sides have the same dimensions, thus their areas are equal. Let's calculate them

Area of front side = 12 in * 2 in = 24 square inches

The sum of the front and back areas is:

2 * 24 = 48 square inches

Now for the lateral sides. Again, we have two similar shapes with identical areas:

Area of one lateral side = 14 in * 2 in = 28 square inches

Area of both lateral sides = 2 * 28 = 56 square inches

Finally, the top and bottom areas are equal:

Area of top side = 12 in * 14 in = 168 square inches

Area of top and bottom sides = 2* 168 = 336 square inches

The total area is

48 + 56 + 336 = 440 square inches

Henry has to paint 440 square inches

User Dvnguyen
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