A jewelry store has small boxes in which to wrap the items that it sells. The diagram below shows one of the boxes. The diagram is not to scale. What is the lateral area of the box to the nearest whole number? Use the large 15 cm x 8 cm rectangles on the top and bottom as bases.

Answer 1

To calculate the lateral area of the box, we need to find the area of the four smaller rectangles that make up the sides of the box.

The two longer sides of the box are rectangles with dimensions 15 cm x 3 cm. Therefore, the area of one side is 15 cm x 3 cm = 45 cm². Since there are two of these sides, the total area for both sides is 2 * 45 cm² = 90 cm².

The two shorter sides of the box are rectangles with dimensions 8 cm x 3 cm. The area of one side is 8 cm x 3 cm = 24 cm². Since there are two of these sides, the total area for both sides is 2 * 24 cm² = 48 cm².

Therefore, the total lateral area of the box is 90 cm² + 48 cm² = 138 cm².

Rounded to the nearest whole number, the lateral area of the box is 138 cm².