Surface area, which you investigated using nets and other representations in a previous lesson, is a very important geometric attribute of 3-dimensional figures.

The surface area of a 3-dimensional figure is the number of square units of area that will cover one or more surfaces of the figure. In application problems, you will commonly run into two types of surface area:

rectangular prism with all faces red to represent total surface area

You have also seen the formulas for determining total surface area and lateral surface area of prisms, cylinders, and pyramids.

summary chart of surface area formulas for prisms, cylinders, and pyramids

In this lesson, you will practice solving application problems involving the surface area of 3-dimensional figures. You may find these formulas to be useful, so keep them, or a collection of mathematics reference materials handy!