Jenny has found the total surface area and the lateral surface area of a prism, but she can’t remember which is which. She got answers of 144 in.2 and 304 in.2 . How would you distinguish which answer is lateral surface area and which is total surface area?
To distinguish which answer is the lateral surface area (LSA) and which is the total surface area (TSA), we can use the following clues:
1. Lateral surface area refers to the combined area of all the sides of the prism excluding the top and bottom faces, while total surface area includes the top and bottom faces as well.
2. The lateral surface area is typically smaller than the total surface area because it does not include the areas of the top and bottom faces.
Given the information:
144 in.2 is either the LSA or the TSA.
304 in.2 is either the LSA or the TSA.
Since the TSA is usually larger than the LSA, we can conclude that 304 in.2 is the total surface area. Therefore, 144 in.2 is the lateral surface area.