Solve the problem. The surface area of a square pyramid is 116 in. and the total area of the pyramid’s four triangular faces is 80 in.
What is the length of one of the sides? Please answer this correctly and accurately.
The surface area of a square pyramid is the sum of the areas of its four triangular faces and its base. Let the side of the base be x, which would have an area of x^2.
The problem states that the total area of the four triangular faces is 80 inches. Since the surface area of the pyramid is 116 inches, the area of the base is:
116 - 80 = 36 square inches.
Since the base is square, we can solve for the side length, x:
x^2 = 36,
x = 6 inches.
So, the length of one side of the pyramid is 6 inches.