Find the surface area of a rectangular pyramid with these measurements l =8 cm, w = 4 cm, and h = 2 cm express your answer as a decimal rounded to the nearest hundredth

Answer 1

To find the surface area of a rectangular pyramid, we need to find the area of each of its different faces.

First, let's calculate the area of the base, which is a rectangle. The formula for the area of a rectangle is length x width. In this case, the length (l) is 8 cm and the width (w) is 4 cm. So the area of the base is 8 cm x 4 cm = 32 cm^2.

Next, we need to calculate the areas of the four triangular faces. Each face is a right triangle, so we can use the formula for the area of a triangle, which is 1/2 x base x height.

The base of each triangle is equal to the width of the rectangle, which is 4 cm. The height of each triangle is equal to the height of the pyramid, which is 2 cm.

So the area of each triangular face is 1/2 x 4 cm x 2 cm = 4 cm^2.

Since there are four triangular faces, we need to multiply the area of one face by 4.

4 cm^2 x 4 = 16 cm^2.

Finally, we add the area of the base and the areas of the four triangular faces to get the total surface area of the pyramid.

32 cm^2 + 16 cm^2 = 48 cm^2.

Therefore, the surface area of the rectangular pyramid is 48 cm^2, rounded to the nearest hundredth.