A solid rectangular prism has dimensions 4 by 2 by 2. A 1 by 1 by 1 cube is cut out of the corner creating the new solid shown. What is the surface area of the new solid?
Solution
The original prism has four faces that are 4 by 2 rectangles, and two faces that are 2 by 2 rectangles. Thus, the surface area of the original prism is . When a 1 by 1 by cube is cut out, a 1 by 1 square is removed from each of three faces of the prism, but three new 1 by 1 squares become part of the surface area. In other words, there is no change to the total surface area. Therefore, the surface area of the new solid is also 40.
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