Quandaries
and Queries
I'm helping my daughter build a pyramid,it needs to be 30cm in height. I have cut out four pieces at 30 deg angles. When I went to join up the pieces it did not fit. I re-check my measuments and found that they were correct. Do I need to cut two pieces smaller so they can match up? Did I cut them at the wrong angles. My base is also 30cm, is that my problem?
Thanks for your help
Marc
Hi Marc,
Finding the correct angle will just make the work harder. I would make
each triangle for the side of the pyramid by first measuring its base
to be 30 cm, and its two other sides to have length 15 
sqrt(6)
cm, which is about 36.74 cm. (That makes the height of each triangle
to be 15
sqrt(5), which is the
correct slant height of a square pyramid whose base is 30cm on each
side.
Chris
Hi Marc,
One way to find the value of 15 sqrt(6)
cm that Chris uses can be found in an answer Penny gave to a
similar question by Jacob.
Harley