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

Answer 1

To calculate the surface area of a square pyramid, we need to find the sum of the areas of the base and the four triangular faces.

First, calculate the area of the base:
Area of a square = side^2
Area of base = 8^2 = 64 sq ft

Next, calculate the area of each triangular face:
Area of a triangle = 0.5 * base * height
The base of each face is the side length of the square base, which is 8ft. The height of each face is the slant height of the pyramid, which is 16ft.
Area of each face = 0.5 * 8 * 16 = 64 sq ft

Since there are four triangular faces, the total area of all the faces is 4 * 64 = 256 sq ft

Therefore, the total surface area of the square pyramid is:
64 sq ft (base) + 256 sq ft (triangular faces) = 320 sq ft

So, the surface area of the square pyramid is 320 square feet.