How is the volume of a prism calculated?

The volume of a prism is calculated using the formula that involves the cross-sectional area and the length of the prism. Specifically, this means that to find the volume, one needs to determine the area of the cross-section—this is the area of a slice of the prism taken perpendicular to its length—and then multiply that area by the total length of the prism.

This method is particularly effective because a prism maintains the same cross-sectional area throughout its length, allowing you to simply replicate the area across the length for a consistent volume calculation.

In terms of the other choices, the calculation of area and height suggests a two-dimensional figure rather than a three-dimensional prism. The option about perimeter would not yield a volume in the proper manner since it involves length around the base rather than the base area itself. The last option presents a formula typically used for finding volume, but it refers to a rectangular prism and doesn't generalize to prisms of different shapes, hence it's not the most appropriate representation of how to calculate the volume of a general prism.