Hello, I am Edwardj 123 on Wikipedia. You can also find me on Google Plus. I infrequently edit Wikipedia articles but occasionally fix minor problems and have added a section to the article "Surface area" called Depth Problems, with a backup of it below. I've also discussed features of the MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia with the account Edwardj 123.
Although the topic and information of my depth problems surface area article section seems quite useful and good, it was removed in March 2017 because it didn't meet the standards of Wikipedia articles and I didn't include sources or context. I will learn how to edit properly if I want to create it again.
Remove "depth problems" section, which is poorly constructed and unsourced. It does not provide any context and explain why you would even need to involve depth in area calculations in practice.
Depth problems edit
The principle of surface area presents a few problems in real world use with three-dimensional shapes because of its implicit depth of 1 unit.
On shapes with joined faces such as the cube, this depth causes the edges and vertices to be counted multiple times. For example, the surface area for a cube is the sum of its six faces so each vertex is included in each area of its three adjoining faces. This problem is relevant to the field of construction and manufacturing.
Also, a related issue occurs with shapes that have a depth less than 1 unit (e.g. 0.5 by 0.5 by 0.5 cube); the actual surface area would have a depth less than 1 and therefore a smaller area but the formula uses a depth of 1.