To find the surface area of a square pyramid, let's break down the steps and identify the formula that corresponds to step 2, which is the area of one triangular side.
- Area of the square base: This is \( s^2 \), where \( s \) is the length of a side of the base.
- Area of one triangular side: The formula for the area of a triangle is \(\frac{1}{2} \times \text{base} \times \text{height}\). In this case, the base of the triangular side is \( s \) and the height (slant height) is \( l \), so the area of one triangular side is \(\frac{1}{2} s l\).
- Combined area for all four triangles: Since there are four triangular sides, this would be \( 4 \times \frac{1}{2} s l = 2 s l \).
- Surface area formula: The surface area of the pyramid combines the area of the base and the total area of the triangles: \( s^2 + 2 s l \).
Thus, the formula that corresponds to step 2 (the area of one triangular side) is
1/2 s l.