Question

The area (A) of a rectangular
surface is the product of its
length and its width.
A = l × w
Area has square units, such
as square centimeters (cm2
).
The surface area (SA) of a
rectangular solid is the sum
of the areas of all of its sides.
3. Use Geometry A
rock sample is a cube and
measures 3 cm on each side.
a. What is the surface area of the rock If you break the sample
into two equal parts,
what is the total surface
area now?

Answers

GPT-4o mini
To find the surface area of a cube, you can use the formula:

\[
\text{SA} = 6 \times l^2
\]

where \( l \) is the length of one side of the cube.

Given that each side of the rock sample is 3 cm:

\[
\text{SA} = 6 \times (3 \, \text{cm})^2 = 6 \times 9 \, \text{cm}^2 = 54 \, \text{cm}^2
\]

So, the surface area of the rock sample is 54 cm².

### If you break the sample into two equal parts:

When you break a cube into two equal parts, you make a cut through one dimension. This results in two rectangular prisms. Each of these prisms will have 3 faces from the original cube (that remain the same) and 2 additional faces from the cut.

1. **Calculating the new surface area per prism**:
- Each new prism will have:
- 3 original faces from the cube, each of which measures \( 3 \, \text{cm} \times 3 \, \text{cm} \).
- 2 new faces, which are created from the cut. Since the cut divides the cube into two equal halves, these faces will be \( 3 \, \text{cm} \times 1.5 \, \text{cm} \) (the height of each prism will be half the original height).

2. **Surface area of one prism**:
- Original faces: \( 3 \times (3 \, \text{cm} \times 3 \, \text{cm}) = 3 \times 9 \, \text{cm}^2 = 27 \, \text{cm}^2 \)
- New faces from the cut: \( 2 \times (3 \, \text{cm} \times 1.5 \, \text{cm}) = 2 \times 4.5 \, \text{cm}^2 = 9 \, \text{cm}^2 \)

Adding these together gives the surface area for one prism:

\[
\text{Surface Area of one prism} = 27 \, \text{cm}^2 + 9 \, \text{cm}^2 = 36 \, \text{cm}^2
\]

3. **Total surface area for the two prisms**:
Multiply the surface area of one prism by 2:

\[
\text{Total Surface Area} = 2 \times 36 \, \text{cm}^2 = 72 \, \text{cm}^2
\]

### Summary:
- **Original surface area of the cube**: 54 cm²
- **Total surface area after breaking into two equal parts**: 72 cm²