HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! math sucks TOTALY?

Question

can you find the lateral area of a right triangular prism with a height of 30cm and a right triangular base with a leg of 12cm and the hypotenuse of 13cm

Answer 1

DON'T PANIC! (imagine this in large friendly red letters)

Always try to draw a picture first. I can't do it for you, but let's see if I can describe it.

Start with the base. A right triangle with legs 12 and x (don't know yet), and a hypotenuse of 13. (Use Pythagoras to find x, because you'll need it later.)

Now, it's a RIGHT triangular prism. The "right" part here means that the lateral edges are perpendicular to the base. Uh, that means it stands straight up...it's not tilted. It's also triangular, which says that the base is a triangle, but we are told that separately.

So, the lateral edges are perpendicular to the base, and edge lengths (all the same) are given as 30. The lateral faces are rectangles, with dimensions 12 by 30, 13 by 30 and x by 30. (Remember x? I said you'd need it later...)

Find x, find the areas, add them up and you're done.