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- Surface Areas
- Home
- Nets of solids
- Surface area of a cube or a rectangular prism
- Surface area of a rectangular prism made of unit cubes
- Distinguishing between surface area and volume
- Using a net to find the surface area of a rectangular prism
- Word problem involving the surface area of a rectangular prism
- Surface area of a triangular prism
- Using a net to find the surface area of a triangular prism
Surface area of a triangular prism
In this lesson, we learn how to find the surface area of a triangular prism.
A triangular prism is a prism that has two congruent triangles as its bases connected by three rectangular lateral faces.
![Three Rectangular Lateral Faces](/surface_areas/images/three_rectangular_lateral_faces.jpg)
The surface area of the triangular prism is the sum total of the areas of its bases and its lateral faces.
Formula to find the surface area of a triangular prism
The Surface Area = 2 B + p h
where,
B is the area of the triangular base of prism
p perimeter of the base and
h the height of the prism
Find the surface area of the following triangular prism.
![Triangular Prism](/surface_areas/images/triangular_prism.jpg)
Solution
Step 1:
Area of triangle base A = 17.34 sq ft; height of prism h = 3.3 ft
Step 2:
Surface area of triangular prism = 2A + (a + b + c )h
= 2 × 17.34 + (6.8 + 8.5 + 5.1) × 3.3
= 102 square ft
Find the surface area of the following triangular prism.
![Triangular Prism Surface Areas](/surface_areas/images/triangular_prism_surface_areas.jpg)
Solution
Step 1:
Area of triangle base A = 3.84 sq yd; height of prism h = 4.3 yd
Step 2:
Surface area of triangular prism = 2A + (a + b + c)h
= 2 × 3.84 + (2.4 + 3.2 + 4) × 4.3
= 48.96 square yd