BIG IDEAS MATH Chapter 8: Surface Areas of Pyramids > Section Exercises 8.3 > Exercise 7 Previous 7 Item 4 Find the surface area of the pyramid. The side lengths of the base are equal. The surface area is (blank) square yards.

First step is to get rid of the square root. remember that a square root is the same as raising to the (1/2) power. see below: multiply exponents per exponent rules to get: remember you subtract exponents from the denominator and add exponents in the numerator so: simplify further: so a is the correct choice. if you don't understand this google exponent rules and it will you understand. look at the image results.