Question

How to find surface area of a right triangular prism to the nearest whole number?

Answer 1

The area of the two triangular bases is
  (total base area) = 2×(1/2)bh
    = bh
    = (10 m)(6 m) = 10·6 m² = 60 m²

The area of the three rectangles making up the remaining faces of the prism is
  (total lateral area) = length×base + length×height + length×hypotenuse
    = length×(base + height + hypotenuse)
    = (16 m)(10 m + 6 m + 11.6 m)
    = (16 m)(27.6 m) = 16·27.6 m² = 441.6 m²

Then the surface area of the prism is the sum of these
  surface area = total base area + total lateral area
    = 60 m² + 441.6² = 501.6 m²
When rounded to the nearest whole number, this is
  A) 502 m²