Question

Travertine at the Getty: Over 1.2 million square feet of travertine stone from Italy was used to construct the Getty Museum. It was mined in large slabs that measured 6 meters high, 12 meters wide, and 2 meters deep. Find the surface area of one of these slabs.

Answer 1

The surface area of a "box" (or slab) is simply the area (length x width).

We have two faces whose dimensions are 12 by 2; two faces whose dimensions are 6 by 2; and two faces whose dimensions are 12 by 6. Therefore:

$\begin{gathered} A1=12\times2\times2=48 \\ A2=6\times2\times2=24 \\ A3=12\times6\times2=144 \end{gathered}$

So, the surface area of one of these slabs is:

$A=48+24+144=216$

Answer: 216 square meters