Calculate Face Area of Cube with 42 cm² Surface Area: Visual Geometry Problem

Question

A cube has a surface area equal to 42 cm².

What is the area of the face highlighted below?

Video Solution

Solution Steps

00:08 Let's find the area of one face of a cube.
00:12 We’ll use A for edge length. Every edge in the cube is the same length.
00:17 The total surface area of the cube is six times the area of one face.
00:22 Now, let's plug in our values and solve for the area of the face.
00:27 Great! We'll focus on finding just the face area now.
00:32 And there you have it. That's the solution!

Step-by-Step Solution

To solve this problem, we'll follow these steps:

  • Step 1: Use the formula for the surface area of a cube: S=6s2 S = 6s^2 .
  • Step 2: Plug in the given total surface area into the formula to find s2 s^2 .
  • Step 3: Calculate the area of one face of the cube.

Now, let's work through each step:
Step 1: We are given that the total surface area S S is 42 cm².
Step 2: Substitute the given surface area into the formula: 6s2=42 6s^2 = 42
To find s2 s^2 , divide both sides of the equation by 6: s2=426=7 s^2 = \frac{42}{6} = 7
Step 3: The area of one face of the cube equals s2 s^2 , so the area of one face is 7 cm².

Therefore, the area of the face highlighted is 7cm2 7 \, \text{cm}^2 .

Answer

7 7