What do you know so far?

Every object in the world has a surface area. So being able to find the surface area of 3D shapes can come in handy—not only on your homework, but also in real life!

Let's find out what you already know about surface area. It's okay if you aren't sure of the answers to these questions because soon you'll watch a video about surface area from two teens who started a delicious business. Then after you do some practice problems, you'll take another short quiz so you can compare how you did against where you started.

Yum! Prism Pops is the hottest new food trend in town! Two teenaged entrepreneurs, Alexa and Aaron, have started a business selling delicious ice pops in unusual 3D shapes. To make their ice pops stand out even more, they plan to illustrate the entire surface area of the wrappers. But they can't start drawing until they know how much surface area they have to cover!
1

Prism Pops' first product was a blueberry-chocolate mix shaped like a rectangular prism. It was 12 cm long, 3 cm wide, and 2 cm high. What is the surface area of this pop?

2

After the success of the blueberry-chocolate pop, Alexa thought it was time to branch out in a new direction. After working in the test kitchen, she showed Aaron a caramel cashew confection shaped like a triangular prism. He loved it! The triangle on either end is a right triangle with height 6 cm, base 8 cm, and a third side length of 10 cm. All the other sides each have a length of 9 cm. What is the surface area of this pop?

3

Not to be outdone, Aaron went into the test kitchen and developed The Blockhead, a 5 cm x 5 cm x 5 cm cube of pure lemon juice with a double dose of citric acid for that extra jolt of sourness. What is the surface area of this pop?

4

The next creation was a watermelon triangular prism with a beguiling hint of mint. The base of the triangle is 4 cm, the height is 3 cm, and the other side of the triangle is 5 cm. The other edges measure 9 cm. What is the surface area of this pop?

5

Mummy movies were a big thing at the time, so Alexa and Aaron decided to develop a series of pyramid-shaped pops. The first was a honey-yogurt square pyramid, with a 5 cm x 5 cm base and a slant height of 6 cm. What is the surface area of this pop?

6

The venture was a success and that enabled the duo to buy even more complicated ingredients! Alexis and Aaron decided to try a lime-coconut pop coated with a shiny silver glaze in a rectangular prism shape. The rectangle is 5 cm high, 7 cm long, and 4 cm wide. What is the surface area of this pop?

7

How confident are you about calculating surface area?