Surface area of a rectangular prism is given by which expression?

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Multiple Choice

Surface area of a rectangular prism is given by which expression?

Explanation:
For a rectangular prism, the surface area comes from adding the areas of all six faces. There are two faces of each type: length by width (lw), length by height (lh), and width by height (wh). So the total area is lw + lw + lh + lh + wh + wh = 2lw + 2lh + 2wh, which can be written as 2(lw + wh + lh). This is the correct expression because it accounts for every face exactly once, including the opposite faces. The other options either omit a pair of faces or count only one dimension’s faces, for example leaving out lh or treating only lw, which is why they don’t match the full surface area.

For a rectangular prism, the surface area comes from adding the areas of all six faces. There are two faces of each type: length by width (lw), length by height (lh), and width by height (wh). So the total area is lw + lw + lh + lh + wh + wh = 2lw + 2lh + 2wh, which can be written as 2(lw + wh + lh). This is the correct expression because it accounts for every face exactly once, including the opposite faces. The other options either omit a pair of faces or count only one dimension’s faces, for example leaving out lh or treating only lw, which is why they don’t match the full surface area.

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