Surface Area if a Cube (enjoy!)

    Hey, I'm doing this from an I-pad and it isn't mine, so I'm sort of limited. Nonetheless, I'm going to try to explain how to find the surface area of a cube.
    This is sort of self explainitory, but there are a few things you should know before you start adding and multiplying and all:

One: a cube is a geometric figure with all equal faces (flat surfaces) which means that if you have the measurement of one face, you have the measurement of all the faces.

Two: surface area is the sum of the area of all the faces of a figure (in this case if you find the area of one face of a cube, you just multiply that measurement by the number of faces you have)

Now, to start with, draw a cube the best you can (if you can't draw a cube, just draw six squares that are about equal in size, and just know in your head that they represent a cube), then label one side of one of the squares 3 units in length. Now, since all sides of a square are congruent, with one labeled side, you know the length of all the other sides of all the other squares (since you know in your head that all the squares are congruent). To find the area of one square, multiply the square's length by its width (personally, length and width have always confused me, just multiply one side measure by the other, which in this case would be 3x3). You should come out with 9 square units for the area of one square (given that you used 3 for the measurement of one side of the square).
    Now, since you know (in your head) that all the squares you drew are equal, you know that the area of all the squares is 9 square units. Now, every cube that you will ever come across has 6 equal faces, so to find the surface area of the cube you have right now, just multiply the area of one of the faces by the total number of faces (9x6 because you have 6 faces and you know that the area of each one is 9 square units). You should come out with 54 square units for the surface area of a cube with edge lengths of 3units.

    Now please note that surface area and volume are COMPLETELY different. Volume is how much water (or any other liquid, but water is a better example) you can fit in a figure, but surface area is how much paper it would take to completely cover the surface of a figure.

    And remember that if you need extra help with this, go to www.khanacademy.org for some videos to further explain surface area.
-Bye bye : )