Question

This is an EXPLAIN YOUR THOUGHTS QUESTION, be sure to answer ALL parts of the questions and show all your work.

Task: Find the surface area of a square pyramid with each side of the base measuring 6 cm and the slant height is 12 cm.

Part a) Identify the known values

Part b) Set up the equation that you will use to solve (be sure to include the known values and the variable that you are trying to solve for)

Part c) Solve the equation. (Be sure to include units!)

Answer 1

a) The known values are ...
• the edge length of the square pyramid base is 6 cm
• the slant height of the square pyramid faces is 12 cm

b) The surface area is the sum of the area of the base and the area of the four triangular sides. The area of a triangle is half the product of base length and height (slant height, in this case).
A = b² +4*(1/2)*bh = b(b +2h)
Substituting known values, we have ...
A = (6 cm)*(6 cm +2*12 cm)

c) A = (6 cm)*(6 cm +24 cm) . . . . order of operations: multiplication inside parens
A = (6 cm)*(30 cm) . . . . . addition inside parens
A = 180 cm² . . . . . . . . . . multiplication
The area of the pyramid is 180 cm².