What is the difference between surface area and total surface area?

Area is used to find the amount of square units insided of a 1- dimensional figure. The formula is: Length x Width= area Surface is quite different. Think of it this way. You have a cardboard box. If you cut each seam of the box and found the area of each section, added them together, you would have the surface area. The formula is: (Length x width x 2)+(width x height x 2)+(height x length x 2)= Surface area