calculateSurfaceAreaPyramid()

Step 1: Understand the problem

Before we begin coding, it's important to understand what we're attempting to accomplish. In this case, we need to calculate the surface area of a pyramid. If you remember from your Geometry classes, the surface area of a pyramid formula is: Area = base area + 0.5 * perimeter * slant height

Step 2: Setting Up Our Function

In Java, we can start off by creating a function signature for our task. We will need three parameters for the base length, slant height and base width of the pyramid.

public static double calculateSurfaceArea(double baseLength, double slantHeight, double baseWidth) {
}

Step 3: Calculating the Base Area

Inside our function, the first step is to calculate the area of the base. We do this by multiplying the base length by the base width.

public static double calculateSurfaceArea(double baseLength, double slantHeight, double baseWidth) {
    double baseArea = baseLength * baseWidth;
}

Step 4: Calculating the Perimeter

Next, we calculate the perimeter of the base, which is twice the sum of base length and width.

public static double calculateSurfaceArea(double baseLength, double slantHeight, double baseWidth) {
    double baseArea = baseLength * baseWidth;
    double perimeter = 2 * (baseLength + baseWidth);
}

Step 5: Adding it all together

Finally, we calculate the surface area by adding the base area to half of the product of the perimeter and slant height. We then return this value.

public static double calculateSurfaceArea(double baseLength, double slantHeight, double baseWidth) {
    double baseArea = baseLength * baseWidth;
    double perimeter = 2 * (baseLength + baseWidth);
    double surfaceArea = baseArea + 0.5 * perimeter * slantHeight;
    return surfaceArea;
}

Conclusion

That's it! You now have a function that accurately calculates the surface area of a pyramid given the base length, slant height, and base width.