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How Do You Find the Volume of a Rectangular Pyramid?

Find the volume of the rectangular pyramid shown in the diagram.

Summary

  1. The volume of a pyramid is one third the area of the base times the height
  2. Since this is a rectangular pyramid, the area of the base is length times width

Notes

    1. The formula for the volume of a pyramid is V=(1/3)Bh
    2. B is the area of the base, which is a rectangle for this pyramid
    3. h is the height of the pyramid
    4. Since the area of a rectangle is LxW, we can rewrite this formula as V=(1/3)(LxW)h
    1. L, the length of the rectangle, is 12 ft
    2. W, the width of the rectangle, is 9 ft
    3. h, the height of the pyramid, is 16 ft
    1. We want to multiply 12 and 9 first because they are in the parentheses