The total surface area of a cone is the sum of the area of its base and the lateral (side) surface.
The lateral surface area of a cone is the area of the lateral or side surface only.
For any cone, is the radius of the base of the cone, is the slant height of the cone, and is the perpendicular height of the cone.
In order to calculate the total surface area of a cone we need to find the area of the two parts of the surface of the cone and add them together.
There is a curved surface area and a circular base. (The curved surface area of a cone is sometimes referred to as the lateral surface area of a cone).
The surface area of a cone is the area of the two parts added together,
The perpendicular height of a cone ℎ is not required to calculate the surface area of a cone, although it is used to calculate the volume of the cone.
Note: We cannot use the formula for the surface area of a cone written above for an oblique cone. This is because the curved surface area does not have a constant slant height from the apex (a vertex) to the circular base.