Volume and Surface Area of Prisms

A prism is a solid which has a uniform polygonal cross section.

Types of Prisms

Right Prisms

Joining edges and faces are perpendicular to the base faces.

Oblique Prisms

Joining edges are not perpendicular to the base faces. Some lateral faces can still be perpendicular to a base.

Volume and Surface Area of Prisms

The surface area of a prism is the sum of the areas of its exposed faces. For a closed right prism, add the two base areas and the rectangular lateral faces.

The volume is \(V=Ah\), where \(A\) is the base area and \(h\) is the perpendicular distance between the parallel bases. In an oblique prism, this is not the sloping edge length.