Question: what is the total surface area of this rectangular prism in square inches?
Answer: Add the six areas together. Add them all together to get the area of the whole shape: lw + lw + wh + wh + lh + lh. You can use this formula for any rectangular prism, and you will always get the surface area. To finish our example, just add up all the blue numbers above: 12 + 12 + 15 + 15 + 20 + 20 = 94 square inches.