Posts

Find the square pyramid volume as a function of aa and HH by slicing method

Image
  The first step is to find the volume of  one  slice of the pyramid. The slice is considered as a square cuboid with side  x x  and infinitesimally small height dh  as shown in blue in the figure below, so we can affirm that the slice’s volume is  d v = x 2 d h d v = x 2 d h . To continue, we need to find a relationship between  x x  and  h h  before applying integration.  h h  is the distance between the cuboid and the pyramid's square base. So to do that, we use  Thales ‘s theorem in the triangle with the orange line segments. We get, x 2 √ a 2 √ = H − h H x a = H − h H    or x = a ( H − h H     ) =   = − ( a H ) 2 ( − H 3 3 ) = − ( a H ) 2 ( − H 3 3 ) = a 2 H 3 3 H 2 = a 2 H 3 3 H 2 = 1 3 a 2 H