So, I thought a bit about our surface area lesson this morning, and I came up with an interesting (yet short!) research project for us (and that includes me as well). I thought of several rectangular prisms that are "famous" which we could find the surface area of. Here's your homework:
Find the surface area of these rectangular prisms. Let's see:
(1) An olympic sized pool. (Now, think about this one -- it doesn't have a top face!)
(2) The Parthenon in Greece (pretend that the top face is the same as the bottom)
(3) Any one of the horizontal laying stones of Stonehenge (I know the stones have been chipped away, but pretend that they are still in tact!)
(4) Ben Jonson (a writer who wrote a play including Shakespeare as a character) is buried in Westminster Abbey in England -- a very coveted place to be buried. However, there is an interesting story about his burial place. Read here: http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/ben-jonson, and calculate the surface area of his plot. (P.S. - As a side note, when I went on a tour of the Abbey many years ago, I wound up standing on his plot during the tour, and I am a huge Shakespeare fan. Imagine how embarrassed I was!!)
I think four interesting prisms is enough. Check my blog by the end of the weekend before class on Monday. I'm going to try to put together a quick video piece about the surface area of a cylinder. Perhaps a lipgloss of that shape might be involved...
Have a lovely and safe weekend girls!!
-SD.
