What is the surface area of a square pyramid where the base edge is 8 ft and slant height is 16 ft

Answer 1

To find the surface area of a square pyramid, you need to find the area of the base and the area of the four triangular faces.

The area of the base is the length of one side of the square, squared. In this case, the base edge is 8 ft, so the area of the base is 8 ft * 8 ft = 64 ft².

The area of each triangular face can be found using the formula A = (1/2) * b * h, where b is the base of the triangle (which is the same as the base edge of the pyramid) and h is the height of the triangle (which is the same as the slant height of the pyramid).

For each triangular face, the base is 8 ft and the slant height is 16 ft, so the area of each triangular face is (1/2) * 8 ft * 16 ft = 64 ft².

There are four triangular faces, so the total area of the triangular faces is 4 * 64 ft² = 256 ft².

Finally, to find the total surface area of the pyramid, you add the area of the base to the area of the triangular faces: 64 ft² + 256 ft² = 320 ft².

Therefore, the surface area of the square pyramid is 320 ft².