Surface area is defined as the area around the surface of a 3-dimensional solid. The shape we are given here is a triangular prism with a square base. This means it contains one square and 4 triangles on the surface. To find the surface area, we just need to find the areas of all 5 surface shapes and add them up. We have been given that the square has a side length of 4 inches, meaning the area is 4^2 or 16. The area of a triangle is (1/2)base*height. The base length is 4 inches and the height is 6.3, and (1/2)*4*6.3 is 12.6. Note that, since there are four triangles, we have to multiply this value by 4 (12.6*4 = 50.4). Now we have the area of the square and the area of all the triangles put together, so we can just add them up:
