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Circumference, Area,
Surface Area, and Volume
By Taylor Winter
Derive the Formula:
Surface area of a Pyramid
Example Problems
1. There is a square pyramid with slant height of 5 cm and base length of 6 cm. What is the surface area of the square pyramid?
Area of a triangle= (b x h)/2
b= 6 cm h= 5cm
6 cm x 5 cm = 30 cm2/2 = 15 cm^2
Area of a rectangle= b x h
b= 6 cm h= 6 cm
6 cm x 6 cm = 36 cm^2
4(lateral faces) + 1(base)
(4 x 15cm^2) + (36 cm^2) = 60 cm^2 + 36 cm^2 = 96 cm^2
The surface area of the square pyramid is 96 cm^2.
Similar to the prism surface area you should draw the net of the pyramid. After that you find the area of the shapes and add them together.
The only difference is that in pyramids there is slant height, or the height of the triangle, which is separate from the height of the pyramid.
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