Surface area is the total area of the outer surface of an object. To find the surface area, you break the object down into its component shapes and add the areas of each shape. For a cube, the surface area formula is SA = 6s^2, where s is the length of one edge. For a rectangular prism, the surface area formula is SA = 2lw + 2wh + 2lh, where l is length, w is width, and h is height. For a cylinder, the surface area formula is SA = 2πr^2 + 2πrh, where r is the radius and h is the height.