Surface area of Prisms

There are many types of solid prisms. A prism is a solid shape with a uniform cross section. Below we shall be exploring these examples.

Rectangular based prisms

This is how you find the surface area of a rectangular based prism; In the illustration above we can see the base which is a rectangle with length l and width w. The area for this base as you know is length x width. The perimeter of the base is 2(L+W). Therefore the surface area for this rectangular based prism is;

…where;
L is the length
W is the width
H is the height

Circular based Prism

Here we have a circular based prism. It’s as though the prism has been extruded from the circle base shown in the illustration above. The area of this circle base is πr² and the perimeter of the base is 2πr. So the surface area is;

Triangular based prism

The triangular based prism has a triangle base. Area of this triangle is 1/2xbxh and the perimeter of this base is s₁, s₂, s₃, Just add all the sides of the shape. So the surface area is;

And these are the formulas to find the surface area of the prisms shown above.