Surface area can be found by adding up the areas of each side of a 3D object.
The surface area of a cube can be found by finding the area of one side, and multiplying it by the number of sides. Typically a cube has 6 sides, but since this cube doesn’t have a top, it only has 5 sides.
Let’s find the area of one side of the cube:
Given one edge is 6 cm, and area of a square is (edge)^2,
A= 6^2 or 6 • 6 = 36 cm^2
Now multiply this area by the number of sides (5):
SA = 5 • 36 = 180 cm^2
The surface area of this cube is 180 cm^2.