The total surface area of the rectangular prism is 172 cm².
Explanation:
Step 1; To calculate the surface area of the entire prism we need to sum the areas of all the different colored sections of the prism. There are a total of 6 different sections in the prism. There are
2 green sections,
2 purple sections, and
2 red sections.
Step 2; Each square is 1 cm² so the area of each section is the length multiplied with the breadth. The sections with the same colors have the same areas.
Green sections area = length × width = 7 × 8 = 56 cm²,
Purple sections area = length × width = 2 × 8 = 16 cm²,
Red sections area = length × width = 7 × 2 = 14 cm².
Total surface area = Area of the first green section + Area of the first purple section + Area of the second green section + Area of the second purple section + Area of the first red section + Area of the second red section.
Total surface area = 56 + 16 +56 + 16 + 14 + 14 = 172 cm².