In geometry, a square pyramid is a pyramid with a square base and triangular sides. If the sides are all equilateral triangles, then the pyramid is one of the Johnson solids (J₁), and can be thought of as half of an octahedron. The 92 Johnson solids were named and described by Norman Johnson in 1966.

Other square pyramids, such as the Great Pyramid of Giza, are not mathematically similar to the Johnson solid; the pyramid at Giza, for example, has isosceles sides of base 756 feet and slant height 719 feet. (That pyramid has the interesting property that the area of each triangular face is equal to the square of its height.)

Area and volume

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The area A and the volume V of a square pyramid (with regular faces) and edge length a are:

$A=(1+\backslash sqrt\{3\})a^2$

$V=\backslash begin\{matrix\}\{\backslash sqrt\{2\}\backslash over6\}\backslash end\{matrix\}a^3$

External link

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• Johnson Solid -- from MathWorld

Self-dual polyhedra | Prismatoid polyhedra | Johnson solids