Question

Veronica ordered a decorative garden trellis in the shape of a square pyramid. The online description of the trellis indicated that the base has a side length of fourteen inches and height along each triangular face of thirty inches. What is the surface area of Veronica's new garden decoration?

Answer 1

The area of a triangle is half the product of base and height, which are both given for the triangular faces of the pyramid, of which there are four. So the total area of those faces is 4*(1/2)bh = 2bh = 2(14)(30) = 840 in^2. The square base of the pyramid has an area of 14^2 = 196 in^2. So the total surface area is 840 + 196 = 1036 in^2.