In this video, we will be learning how to work out the surface area of a rectangular prism. It is quite similar to the surface area of cubes, except this isn’t made out of squares only.
A rectangular prism is made out of 6 rectangles; 2 of them are the top and bottom rectangles and have the same area, 2 of them are the sides which have the same area and 2 of them are the front and back which also have the same area. The front and back rectangles are also known as the base. It is a rectangular prism, therefore the base is a rectangle. This is not important when working out the surface area of prisms but it is important when working out the volume.
To work out the surface area of rectangular prisms, you first work out the area of all the rectangles and add them together to get the total surface area.