The situation that would use surface area to calculate is:
- The amount of paint needed to paint the sides of a house.
Surface area calculations are used to determine how much area will need to be covered by paint (or other similar materials).
The other situations involve volume calculations, as they refer to how much space is inside a container:
- The amount of cereal a cereal box can hold (volume)
- The amount of wrapping paper needed to wrap a gift (depends on the surface area, but it's related to the way the gift is wrapped, which can have more implications than just surface area)
- The amount of water a bottle can hold (volume)