Help with interior faces and composite figures, please?

I'm solving for the surface area of a stool, which is basically a cylinder and four rectangular prisms for legs. I can easily figure out their surface area, but I know I'm supposed to exclude the area from the interior faces, but I'm not sure exactly what those faces would be?

The four rectangular prisms connect to the cylinder, so I know automatically there are 4 interior faces. But I'm confused about the space that is removed from the cylinder's surface area.

Question

Help with interior faces and composite figures, please?

I'm solving for the surface area of a stool, which is basically a cylinder and four rectangular prisms for legs.  I can easily figure out their surface area, but I know I'm supposed to exclude the area from the interior faces, but I'm not sure exactly what those faces would be?

The four rectangular prisms connect to the cylinder, so I know automatically there are 4 interior faces.  But I'm confused about the space that is removed from the cylinder's surface area.

glorylove · Answer

Do I double the number of interior faces to 8, and subtract the latter amount of interior faces from the cylinder's surface area? I hope that makes sense, I'm just a bit confused.

ranga · Answer

My guess is the four legs attach to the cylinder and that contact area will have to be subtracted from both the legs and the cylinder because they are no longer exposed and are not part of the surface area.

glorylove · Answer

Thank you so much!

ranga · Answer

You are welcome.