What is the lateral area?

Lateral area is defined as the sum of the areas of all the faces of an object, except for the base of the object. This math term is often abbreviated as L.A.

To find the lateral area of a prism, the perimeter is multiplied by the height of the prism. The lateral area of a cylinder is found by multiplying the circumference of the circular shape by the height of the cylinder. To find the lateral area of a pyramid, the measurements needed are the perimeter and the height of the slant. Half of the perimeter is then multiplied by the slant height to calculate the lateral area.