Final answer:
The total surface area of the rectangular prism is 340 cm², which is found by summing the areas of all the faces of the prism.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the surface area of a rectangular prism, we calculate the area of all six faces and sum them up. We have two faces for each pair of dimensions. The formula is as follows: Surface Area = 2lw + 2lh + 2wh, where l is the length, w is the width, and h is the height.
In this case, with a length (l) of 8 cm, width (w) of 10 cm, and height (h) of 5 cm, the surface area calculation is:
- 2(lw) = 2(8 cm × 10 cm) = 160 cm²
- 2(lh) = 2(8 cm × 5 cm) = 80 cm²
- 2(wh) = 2(10 cm × 5 cm) = 100 cm²
Adding these areas together, we get the total surface area:
Surface Area = 160 cm² + 80 cm² + 100 cm² = 340 cm²