The net of a cylinder consists of 2 congruent circles (top and bottom) and 1 rectangular side. In order to find the total surface area, you need to find the area of the 2 circles and the area of the rectangular side and add them together. Note: the area of a rectangle can be found by length times width. The length of the rectangular side is equal to the circumference of the circle and the width of the rectangular side is equal to the height of the cylinder.

So, 2[math]\pi[/math]r[sup]2 [/sup]will give you the area of the 2 circles and 2[math]\pi[/math]rh will give you the area of the rectangle (2[math]\pi[/math]r is the circumference)![br]So the entire formula for the surface area of a cylinder is:[br]SA = 2[math]\pi[/math]r[sup]2 [/sup]+ 2[math]\pi[/math]rh