Calculate the surface area of the square pyramid that has a base length of 12 and a slant height of 18. Show your work. like if a 6th grader did the work
First, let's calculate the area of the square base of the pyramid. Since all sides of a square are equal, we can use the formula for finding the area of a square, which is base length squared.
Base area = 12 x 12 = 144
Next, let's find the area of each of the 4 triangular faces of the pyramid. The formula to find the area of a triangle is (base x height) / 2. Since the base of each triangle is a side of the square base, we can use the base length of 12.
Triangle area = (12 x 18) / 2 = 216
Since there are 4 triangular faces on the pyramid, we need to find the total area of all 4 together.
Total triangular area = 216 x 4 = 864
Finally, let's add the base area and the total triangular area together to find the total surface area of the square pyramid.
Total surface area = Base area + Total triangular area = 144 + 864 = 1008
Therefore, the surface area of the square pyramid is 1008 square units.