Transum Software

Surface Area

Calculate the surface areas of the given basic solid shapes using standard formulae.
Menu Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9 Exam Help

This is level 6; Find the surface area of a variety of pyramids. The diagrams are not to scale.

1

Find the surface area of a square based pyramid if the length of a side of the
square base is 9cm and the area of each triangular face is 39cm2.

Shape

☐ cm2 ☐ ✓ ✗

2


Find the surface area of a square-based pyramid with a height of 9cm and base with sides of length 19cm. Give your answer to the nearest square centimetre.

☐ cm2 ☐ ✓ ✗

3


Find the surface area of a square-based pyramid with a height of 38cm and base with an area of 900cm2. Give your answer to the nearest square centimetre.

☐ cm2 ☐ ✓ ✗

4

Find the surface area of this rectangular-based pyramid. Give your answer to the nearest square centimetre.

Shape 4

☐ cm2 ☐ ✓ ✗

5

A square-based right pyramid is made from the net shown below.
Calculate the surface area of the pyramid.

Pyramid net

☐ cm2 ☐ ✓ ✗

6

The pyramids in Egypt are huge! Blocks of white limestone from quarries across the Nile were used to cover the pyramid's four triangular faces. Imagine that you were the official and only pyramid polisher? How many days would it take you to polish one pyramid (base side 100m, height 144m) working at the rate of 5 minutes per square metre and working eight hours per day. Round your answer up to the next whole number of days.

Shape 6

☐ cm2 ☐ ✓ ✗

Check

This is Surface Area level 6. You can also try:
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9

Instructions

Try your best to answer the questions above. Type your answers into the boxes provided leaving no spaces. As you work through the exercise regularly click the "check" button. If you have any wrong answers, do your best to do corrections but if there is anything you don't understand, please ask your teacher for help.

When you have got all of the questions correct you may want to print out this page and paste it into your exercise book. If you keep your work in an ePortfolio you could take a screen shot of your answers and paste that into your Maths file.
Why am I learning this?

Mathematicians are not the people who find Maths easy; they are the people who enjoy how mystifying, puzzling and hard it is. Are you a mathematician?

Comment recorded on the 14 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Trish Bailey, Kingstone School:

"This is a great memory aid which could be used for formulae or key facts etc - in any subject area. The PICTURE is such an aid to remembering where each number or group of numbers is - my pupils love it!
Thanks"

Comment recorded on the 19 October 'Starter of the Day' page by E Pollard, Huddersfield:

"I used this with my bottom set in year 9. To engage them I used their name and favorite football team (or pop group) instead of the school name. For homework, I asked each student to find a definition for the key words they had been given (once they had fun trying to guess the answer) and they presented their findings to the rest of the class the following day. They felt really special because the key words came from their own personal information."

Each month a newsletter is published containing details of the new additions to the Transum website and a new puzzle of the month.

The newsletter is then duplicated as a podcast which is available on the major delivery networks. You can listen to the podcast while you are commuting, exercising or relaxing.

Transum breaking news is available on Twitter @Transum and if that's not enough there is also a Transum Facebook page.
Featured Activity

ChrisMaths

ChrisMaths

Christmas activities make those December Maths lessons interesting, exciting and relevant. If students have access to computers there are some online activities to keep them engaged such as Christmas Ornaments and Christmas Light Up.

Answers

There are answers to this exercise but they are available in this space to teachers, tutors and parents who have logged in to their Transum subscription on this computer.

A Transum subscription unlocks the answers to the online exercises, quizzes and puzzles. It also provides the teacher with access to quality external links on each of the Transum Topic pages and the facility to add to the collection themselves.

Subscribers can manage class lists, lesson plans and assessment data in the Class Admin application and have access to reports of the Transum Trophies earned by class members.

If you would like to enjoy ad-free access to the thousands of Transum resources, receive our monthly newsletter, unlock the printable worksheets and see our Maths Lesson Finishers then sign up for a subscription now:

Subscribe

Go Maths

Learning and understanding Mathematics, at every level, requires learner engagement. Mathematics is not a spectator sport. Sometimes traditional teaching fails to actively involve students. One way to address the problem is through the use of interactive activities and this web site provides many of those. The Go Maths page is an alphabetical list of free activities designed for students in Secondary/High school.

Maths Map

Are you looking for something specific? An exercise to supplement the topic you are studying at school at the moment perhaps. Navigate using our Maths Map to find exercises, puzzles and Maths lesson starters grouped by topic.

Teachers

If you found this activity useful don't forget to record it in your scheme of work or learning management system. The short URL, ready to be copied and pasted, is as follows:

Alternatively, if you use Google Classroom, all you have to do is click on the green icon below in order to add this activity to one of your classes.

It may be worth remembering that if Transum.org should go offline for whatever reason, there is a mirror site at Transum.info that contains most of the resources that are available here on Transum.org.

When planning to use technology in your lesson always have a plan B!

For Students:

 

For Teachers:

For All:

Transum.org is a proud supporter of the kidSAFE Seal Program
©1997-2024 WWW.TRANSUM.ORG

© Transum Mathematics 1997-2024
Scan the QR code below to visit the online version of this activity.

This is a QR Code

https://www.Transum.org/go/?Num=264

Description of Levels

Close

❎

Level 1 - Find the surface area of shapes made up of cubes.

Level 2 - Find the surface area of a variety of cuboids.

Level 3 - Find the surface area of a variety of prisms.

Level 4 - Find the surface area of a variety of cylinders.

Level 5 - Find the surface area of a variety of cones.

Level 6 - Find the surface area of a variety of pyramids.

Level 7 - Find the surface area of a variety of spheres.

Level 8 - Find the surface area of composite shapes.

Level 9 - Mixed, more challenging questions involving surface area.

Volume - Find the volume of basic solid shapes.

Surface Area = Volume - Can you find the ten cuboids that have numerically equal volumes and surface areas? A challenge in using technology.

Exam Style Questions - A collection of problems in the style of GCSE or IB/A-level exam paper questions (worked solutions are available for Transum subscribers).

More on 3D Shapes including lesson Starters, visual aids, investigations and self-marking exercises.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

Log in Sign up

Help Video

Surface Area Formulae

Cube: \(6s^2\) where \(s\) is the length of one edge.

Cuboid: \(2(lw + lh + wh)\) where \(l\) is the length, \(w\) is the width and \(h\) is the height of the cuboid.

Cylinder: \(2\pi rh + 2\pi r^2\) where \(h\) is the height (or length) of the cylinder and \(r\) is the radius of the circular end.

Cone: \(\pi r(r+l)\) where \(l\) is the distance from the apex to the rim of the circle (sloping height) of the cone and \(r\) is the radius of the circular base.

Cone: \(\pi r(r+\sqrt{h^2+r^2})\) where \(h\) is the height of the cone and \(r\) is the radius of the circular base.

Square based pyramid: \(s^2+2s\sqrt{\frac{s^2}{4}+h^2}\) where \(h\) is the height of the pyramid and \(s\) is the length of a side of the square base.

Rectangular based pyramid: \(lw+l\sqrt{\frac{w^2}{4}+h^2}+w\sqrt{\frac{l^2}{4}+h^2}\) where \(h\) is the height of the pyramid, \(l\) is the length of the base and \(w\) is the width of the base.

Sphere: \(4\pi r^2\) where \(r\) is the radius of the sphere.

Prism: Double the area of the cross section added to the product of the length and the perimeter of the cross section.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

Log in Sign up

Close

❎