When I think about the surface area of cubes and spheres, I try to make it simple.

Let’s start with cubes:

• A cube has six sides, and each side is a square.
• If the length of one side of the cube is $s$, then the surface area is $6s^2$.
• I like to picture the cube as if I’m unfolding it into six squares. This way, I can see how all the pieces fit together.

Now, let’s talk about spheres:

• I think of a sphere as a ball.
• The formula to calculate the surface area of a sphere with radius $r$ is $4\pi r^2$.
• Imagining wrapping the ball in a layer helps me understand that the surface area covers every part of it.

This way of thinking makes math a lot easier to understand!