Question

The height of a side on a pyramid is 11 inches long, and its square base has sides that are 6 inches long. What is the surface area? 233 in.2 168 in.2 144 in.2

Answer 1

The area of the pyramid’s base is 36 in².

The pyramid has 4 lateral faces.

The surface area of each lateral face is 27 in².

Explanation:

"Lateral" means side, so the lateral faces are triangles.

The base is the bottom, which is a square.

To calculate the area of the base, use the formula for area of a square.

To calculate the area of a lateral face, find the area of a triangle.

In a pyramid, the number of lateral faces is the same as the number of sides in the base. The square base as 4 sides, so there are 4 lateral faces.

Answer 2

To find the surface area you can Think of the net that is created from a square pyramid.

The net will consist of four congruent triangles and one square base.

The area of the base is 6 inches times 6 inches or 36 in.².

The area of each lateral face (triangle) is 6×11÷2 or 33 in.².

33 in.² x 4+36 in.² = 168 in.².

The surface area is 168 in.².