Exercise 18 Page 779

A triangular prism is a prism that has triangular bases. Let's take a look at the given diagram.

The surface area of a triangular prism is the sum of the areas of the two triangular bases and the three rectangular faces. Let's calculate the area of the triangular bases and the area of the rectangular faces one at a time. Then we can add them together.

Triangular Bases

The triangular bases of the given prism are triangles with $11.6$ meters long side and $6$ meter long height falling on that side. The area of a triangle is half the product of a base and the height falling onto that base. Let's use this fact to find the area of one of the prism's bases.