September 8, 2009
No CommentsHow to Find the Surface Area of a Pyramid
Description
This video gives a specific example for how to find the surface area of a pyramid, and also provides one of the basic formulas. The problem is completely worked through in the video to raise students understanding of the subject matter.
Overview
The surface area is the area of each side, or face, of the shape added together. For a pyramid, this typically means the rectangle or square that is the base, and the four triangles that make up the sides of the pyramid. There are more complicated versions of a pyramid, ones that have different shapes on the bottom and a different number of triangles, but the most common shape to see is a simple pyramid. First, solve for the areas of the triangles. The area formula for a triangle is A = (1/2) * b * h. If the shape on the bottom is a square, all the triangles have the same area and you will only need to multiply your answer by 4. If the shape is a rectangle or a more complicated shape, it is entirely possible that the triangles have different areas, and you may want to solve for area more than once. Then you need to find the area of the base. Depending on what your base is there will be a different area formula. Once you have all the areas, add them together to get the surface area of your pyramid.
