Total Surface Area = Lateral Area + 2 × Area of Base To find the total surface area, add the area of the large rectangle plus two times the area of the base, B. Next, find the area of one of the two congruent bases, area B. Lateral Area = Perimeter of Base × Height of Prism The area of the big rectangle is found by adding the widths of all of the individual faces, the perimeter ( P) of the prism, and then multiplying by the height. The diagram shows the lateral faces of the prism forming one big rectangle. We know that the area of a rectangle is the product of the length and the width, so if we label the dimensions of each of the faces of the prism, we can calculate the surface area of the prism. The bases of the prism are highlighted in blue. Now that you have explored nets of 3-dimensional figures, let's use those nets to generate formulas for surface areas of prisms, pyramids, and cylinders.įirst, consider the net below for a rectangular prism. The barn is a prism with a seven-sided polygon as the base, so we can call the barn a heptagonal prism. The silo is in the shape of a cylinder with a half-dome roof. Since the surfaces of a cylinder are not polygons (they have round edges and are not always planar figures), we call them surfaces instead of faces.Ĭonsider the barn and silo shown. A cylinder has two circular bases and a curved lateral surface. A pyramid with a square base is called a square pyramid.Ī cylinder is like a prism, but the bases of a cylinder are circles instead of polygons. Like prisms, pyramids are named by the shape of their base. The lateral faces of a pyramid are triangles that meet at one point, which is called the vertex. Likewise, a prism with a hexagonal-shaped base is called a hexagonal prism.Ī pyramid is a 3-dimensional figure that has one base. So, a prism with a rectangular-shaped base is called a rectangular prism. A prism is named by the shape of its base. The lateral faces of a prism are always parallelograms and are usually rectangles. Let us solve some examples to understand the concept better.3-dimensional figures occur everywhere in the world around us, especially in fields such as architecture.Ī prism is a 3-dimensional figure that has two parallel, congruent bases connected by lateral faces. Total Surface Area ( TSA) = ( b × h) + ( s 1 + s 2 + s 3) × l, here, s 1, s 2, and s 3are the base edges, h = height, l = length The formula to calculate the TSA of a triangular prism is given below: The total surface area (TSA) of a triangular prism is the sum of the lateral surface area and twice the base area. Lateral Surface Area ( LSA ) = ( s 1 + s 2 + s 3) × l, here, s 1, s 2, and s 3 are the base edges, l = length Total Surface Area

The formula to calculate the total and lateral surface area of a triangular prism is given below: The lateral surface area (LSA) of a triangular prism is the sum of the surface area of all its faces except the bases. It is expressed in square units such as m 2, cm 2, mm 2, and in 2.

The surface area of a triangular prism is the entire space occupied by its outermost layer (or faces). Like all other polyhedrons, we can calculate the surface area and volume of a triangular prism. So, every lateral face is parallelogram-shaped. Oblique Triangular Prism – Its lateral faces are not perpendicular to its bases.Right Triangular Prism – It has all the lateral faces perpendicular to the bases.

Find lateral area of triangular prism