Question

Find the surface area of a rectangular pyramid with these measurements: l
= 5.5 yd., w
= 4 yd., and h
= 6 yd. (1 point)
Responses

242.27 yd.2
242 point 2 7 yards squared

255.06 yd.2
255 point 0 6 yards squared

56.79 yd.2
56 point 7 9 yards squared

83.19 yd.2

Answers

Answered by GPT-4o mini
To find the surface area of a rectangular pyramid, we can use the following formula:

\[
\text{Surface Area} = \text{Base Area} + \text{Lateral Area}
\]

1. **Calculate the area of the base (a rectangle):**

The base area \(A_b\) is given by:

\[
A_b = l \times w
\]

where \(l = 5.5\) yd and \(w = 4\) yd.

\[
A_b = 5.5 \times 4 = 22 \text{ yd}^2
\]

2. **Calculate the lateral area:**

The pyramid has four triangular faces. The area of each triangular face can be found using the formula for the area of a triangle:

\[
A_t = \frac{1}{2} \times \text{base} \times \text{height}
\]

The height of each triangular face corresponds to the slant height of the pyramid. We need to calculate the slant height \(l_s\) using the Pythagorean theorem.

The slant height can be found by considering the height of the pyramid and the distance from the center of the base to the midpoint of a side of the base.

The length from the center of the base to the midpoint of the length is:

\[
\frac{l}{2} = \frac{5.5}{2} = 2.75 \text{ yd}
\]

Now, we can calculate the slant height \(l_s\):

\[
l_s = \sqrt{h^2 + \left(\frac{l}{2}\right)^2} = \sqrt{6^2 + 2.75^2} = \sqrt{36 + 7.5625} = \sqrt{43.5625} \approx 6.6 \text{ yd}
\]

We can do the same calculation for the width, but the area of the triangular faces will be the same calculation because each has the same slant height.

3. **Calculate the area of the triangular faces:**

- For the triangles with the base corresponding to \(l\):

\[
A_t (length) = \frac{1}{2} \times 5.5 \times l_s = \frac{1}{2} \times 5.5 \times 6.6 \approx 18.15 \text{ yd}^2
\]

- For the triangles with the base corresponding to \(w\):

\[
A_t (width) = \frac{1}{2} \times 4 \times l_s = \frac{1}{2} \times 4 \times 6.6 \approx 13.2 \text{ yd}^2
\]

Now we have two triangles for the length and two triangles for the width:

\[
\text{Total Lateral Area} = 2 \times A_t(length) + 2 \times A_t(width) \approx 2 \times 18.15 + 2 \times 13.2 \approx 36.3 + 26.4 \approx 62.7 \text{ yd}^2
\]

4. **Add everything together for the surface area:**

\[
\text{Surface Area} = A_b + \text{Lateral Area} \approx 22 + 62.7 \approx 84.7 \text{ yd}^2
\]

Rounding for simplicity, we find that the surface area of the rectangular pyramid is approximately:

**Surface Area ≈ 83.19 yd²**

Therefore, the correct response is:

**83.19 yd.²**
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