What has the larger surface area?

Question

Which has the larger surface area something that is short and fat or something that is tall and skinny?

Answer 1

I imagine it would be about the same.

Answer 2

Depends on how tall vs. how fat.

Answer 3

If they have the same volume (i.e., you took two identical lumps of clay and morphed one into something short and fat and the other into something tall and skinny) the tall and skinny one will have more surface area.

For a given volume, a sphere has the least surface area. Everything else will have more. Thus the closer you are to a sphere, the less surface are you will have.

Answer 4

Depends on the measurements.