How do you find the lateral height of a square pyramid?

Answer 1

To find the lateral height of a square pyramid, first identify the apex (top point) of the pyramid and the midpoint of one of its base sides. The lateral height is the length of the segment connecting the apex to this midpoint. You can use the Pythagorean theorem, where the lateral height forms the hypotenuse of a right triangle with the height of the pyramid and half the base length as the two other sides. Thus, the formula is ( l = \sqrt{h^2 + \left(\frac{b}{2}\right)^2} ), where ( l ) is the lateral height, ( h ) is the height, and ( b ) is the length of a base side.