Question

A block of wood has the shape of a triangular prism. The bases are right triangles. Find its surface area

Answer 1

The formula used to calculate the surface area of a triangular prism is:

S = bh + 2ah

Where S = surface area, b = length or side of the triangle, and h = height of the triangle.

For right triangles, the height can be calculated as:

c = a^(2) \+ b^(2)

c = the hypotenuse

a and b = the two sides of the triangle