How Do You Find the Lateral and Surface Areas of a Rectangular Prism?

Note:

The lateral area of a three-dimensional solid is the area of all the lateral faces. In this tutorial, you'll see how to use the dimensions of a rectangular prism to find the lateral area. Take a look!

Keywords:

rectangular prism
prism
lateral area
surface area
solve
formula
rectangle
base
lateral face
area
congruent bases

Background Tutorials

Understand that shapes in different categories (e.g., rhombuses, rectangles, and others) may share attributes (e.g., having four sides), and that the shared attributes can define a larger category (e.g., quadrilaterals). Recognize rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories.
- What is a Rectangle?
  
  A rectangle is one of the many fundamental shapes you'll see in math. Rectangles have special properties that can be very useful in helping you solve a problem. This tutorial introduces you to rectangles and explains their interesting qualities!
Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made up of rectangles and triangles, and use the nets to find the surface area of these figures. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
- What is a Prism?
  
  The term prism is a cool name for a special kind of three-dimensional solid. This tutorial defines the term prism and shows you how to name a prism using the shape of its bases. Check it out!
Understand that a two-dimensional figure is congruent to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections, and translations; given two congruent figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the congruence between them.
- What Does Congruent Mean?
  
  If two figures have the same size and shape, then they are congruent. The term congruent is often used to describe figures like this. In this tutorial, take a look at the term congruent!