C Program to Find Surface Area and Volume of a Rectangular Prism

Introduction

A rectangular prism is a three-dimensional geometric figure with six rectangular faces, also known as a cuboid. It is a common shape in real-world applications, such as boxes, rooms, or storage containers. In this program, we will calculate its surface area and volume using a C programming approach.

---

Formulas

To calculate the surface area and volume of a rectangular prism, the following formulas are used:

• Surface Area: \( 2 \times (lw + lh + wh) \)
• Volume: \( l \times w \times h \)

Here:

• l represents the length of the rectangular prism.
• w represents the width.
• h represents the height.

---

Code

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    float length, width, height, surface_area, volume;

    // Input dimensions
    printf("Enter the length of the rectangular prism: ");
    scanf("%f", &length);
    printf("Enter the width of the rectangular prism: ");
    scanf("%f", &width);
    printf("Enter the height of the rectangular prism: ");
    scanf("%f", &height);

    // Calculations
    surface_area = 2 * (length * width + length * height + width * height);
    volume = length * width * height;

    // Output results
    printf("The surface area of the rectangular prism is: %.2f\n", surface_area);
    printf("The volume of the rectangular prism is: %.2f\n", volume);

    return 0;
}
    

---

Output

When you run the program and provide the required inputs, the output might look like this:

Enter the length of the rectangular prism: 5
Enter the width of the rectangular prism: 3
Enter the height of the rectangular prism: 4
The surface area of the rectangular prism is: 94.00
The volume of the rectangular prism is: 60.00
    

---

Explanation

This program is designed to compute both the surface area and volume of a rectangular prism. Let's break down the process:

• Input: The program first asks the user to input the dimensions of the prism: length, width, and height.
• Calculations:
  • The surface area is calculated using the formula \( 2 \times (lw + lh + wh) \). This adds the area of all six faces of the prism.
  • The volume is computed by multiplying the three dimensions: \( l \times w \times h \).
• Output: The results are displayed with two decimal points of precision for clarity and accuracy.