Question

A rectangle prism is dilated using a scale factor of 4. Determine how this will affect the surface area of the prism.

The surface area will be 1/4 the size of the original prism.

The surface area will be 4 times the size of the original prism.

The surface area will be 8 times the size of the original prism.

The surface area will be 16 times the size of the original prism.

Answers

GPT-4o mini
When a three-dimensional shape like a rectangular prism is dilated using a scale factor, the surface area is affected by the square of that scale factor.

If the scale factor is \( k \), the new surface area will be \( k^2 \) times the original surface area.

In your case, the scale factor is 4:

\[
\text{Surface area scaling factor} = 4^2 = 16
\]

Thus, the surface area of the dilated prism will be 16 times the size of the original prism.

Therefore, the correct answer is:

**The surface area will be 16 times the size of the original prism.**