Cube surface area and net
Martin McBride
2021-02-11
- Categories:
- gcse
- geometry
- 3d geometry
Here is a cube of side $a$:
Cube net
We find the net of a cube by unfolding it, like this:
This animation shows the cube being completely unfolded:
Cube surface area
The surface area of the cube is the total area of all its faces. Assuming the side of the cube has length $a$, each face has an area of $a^2$:
Since there are 6 faces, the total surface area is:
$$ area = 6 a^2 $$