Browse · harp
Printsmc
geometry senior
Problem
A pyramid has a square base and vertex . The area of square is , and the areas of and are and , respectively. What is the volume of the pyramid?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)
Solution
Let be the height of the pyramid and be the distance from to . The side length of the base is . The heights of and are and , respectively. Consider a side view of the pyramid from . We have a systems of equations through the Pythagorean Theorem: Setting them equal to each other and simplifying gives . Therefore, , and the volume of the pyramid is .
Final answer
E