Video: Finding the Total Surface Area of a Cube given Its Edge Length

Video Transcript

What is the surface area of a cube of side 17 centimeters?

We find the surface area of a cube by multiplying six times a squared, where a is the edge length of the cube. For this question, we’re told that the side length equals 17 centimeters. Our side or edge length is 17 centimeters. We can label our picture. Then we can use the formula and plug in the information we know.

Since 17 represents our edge length, we can plug in 17 centimeters for a. We’ll follow the order of operations. So first we’ll square 17 centimeters. 17 centimeters squared equals 289 centimeters squared. We multiply 289 by six, which gives us 1734 centimeters squared.

The surface area of a cube with a side length or edge length of 17 equals 1734 centimeters squared.