Question

How do you find the area of a lateral side?

Answer 1

The lateral surface area is `60 cm^2`

Explanation:

The formula for finding the lateral surface area of a rectangular prism is `LSA = pxxh` where `p = perimeter` and `h = height`.

We already know that `h = 6`, but we need to find the perimeter of the base (the grayed-in region of the second picture). The perimeter of any shape is simply all of the sides added together. So all we have to do is add
`2+3+2+3` to find `p`
`5+5 = p`
`10 = p`

Now that we have the perimeter, we can put it into the other formula.
`LSA = pxxh`
`LSA = 10xx6`
`LSA = 60cm^2`