I have always loved wrapping presents. Birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and any other day I could wrap a gift, I would. My mom even used to pay me to help her wrap gifts before Christmas and to keep my mouth shut about what my brothers were getting! Even though I loved wrapping, sometimes I failed. Some gifts looked like this...
And others turned out like this...
But every once in a while, a package turned out looking great. Similar to this...
When I remembered the properties of surface area, I made a nicer looking gift. Surface area is the sum of the areas of the surfaces of three-dimensional objects. Let's estimate the right prism above measures 4in x 4in x 1in if the measurements are
l x
w x
h. The formula for surface area (SA) = 2B + ph, where B is the area of the base, p is the perimeter of the base and h is the height of the prism.
SA = 2B + ph
SA = 2 (4in x 4 in) + (16in x 1in)
SA = 32 squared in + 16 squared in
SA = 48 squared in
To wrap the gift in the picture above, you would need 48 squared inches of wrapping paper. But you might want to add a couple of extra inches, to make sure it overlaps.
Here's a fun website to encourage you to practice your surface area skills!
Gift Wrapping Ideas
There are some cool ideas on that Gift Wrapping site. I always wrap presents with my family for Christmas. I like your explanation of surface area. This post is fun and understandable. Thanks for sharing the new ideas.
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