Basic Geometry : Quadrilaterals

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Basic Geometry

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Example Questions

Example Question #21 : Squares

Find the length of the diagonal of a square whose side length is 3.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find a diagonal of a square recall that the diagonal will create a triangle in the square for which it is the hypotenuse and the side lengths will be the other two lengths of the triangle.

To solve, simply use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve.

Thus,

Example Question #22 : Squares

Find the length of the diagonal of a square with side length 2.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To solve, simply use the Pythagorean Theorem. Thus,

Remember, that when simplifying square roots, you can only pull a number out if you have two factors of it. That is why I grouped the end of this answer the way I did so you could see that since I had two squared, I could pull one out, one disappears, and the two on the outside of the parenthesis remains under the radical.

Example Question #24 : How To Find The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Square

The area of a square is . What is the length of the diagonal?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Since the area is 25 square meters and we know it's a square, the length of each side is 5 meters, since 5 x 5 = 25.

To find the length of the diagonal, use the Pythagorean theorem:

Example Question #23 : Squares

What is the length of the diagonal of a square with 3-inch sides?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To solve, use the Pythagorean Theorem:

Example Question #24 : Squares

True or false: The length of a diagonal of a square with sides of length 1 is .

Possible Answers:

True

False

Correct answer:

False

Explanation:

A square is shown below with its diagonal.

Square 1

Each of the triangles formed is an isosceles right triangle with congruent legs - by the 45-45-90 Triangle Theorem, they are 45-45-90 triangles. Also by the 45-45-90 Triangle Theorem, the diagonal, the hypotenuse of each triangle, measures  times the length of a leg. Since each side of the square measures 1, the diagonal has length , not  .

Example Question #23 : Squares

Square

Consider the square  shown here. The length of each of its sides is  units. What is the length of its diagonal ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Recall that the side lengths of a square are each congruent; recall further that the angles in a square are each right angles. Hence, the diagonal  of the square  may be considered the hypotenuse of a right isosceles triangle whose other two sides are  and . The side lengths of  and  are given as  units; hence, we can deduce the diagonal  of the square  by the Pythagorean Theorem, as shown:

.

Hence, the length of the diagonal  of the square  is  units.

Example Question #27 : Squares

A square has a side length of 12 inches. What is the length of the diagonal across its face?

Possible Answers:

None of the other answers.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Squares have four congruent sides. If one side is 12, the other sides must be as well. Since the diagonal makes a right triangle with the other sides we can use Pythagorean theorem to find the diagonal. 

Take the square root of both sides:

The length of the diagonal is 17 inches.

 

Example Question #271 : Quadrilaterals

The sides of a square garden are 10 feet long. What is the area of the garden?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The formula for the area of a square is


where  is the length of the sides. So the solution can be found by


Example Question #272 : Quadrilaterals

The length of line  in the figure below is 15 inches. What is the area of the square ?

Square_diagonal

Possible Answers:

Cannot be determined

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Since  is a square, the side  is the same length as all of the other three sides.

We get area by multiplying length by width (or base by height, if you prefer), since all sides are equal, it looks like this:

Don't forget, the units are SQUARE INCHES.

Example Question #273 : Quadrilaterals

Figure2

Point A is the center of the circle.

Figure ABCD is a square.

Segments AB and AD are radii of the circle.

The radius of the circle is  units.

Find the area of the green-colored shape.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Square ABCD contains both the red and green shapes. The red shape is equal to the area of one-fourth of the circle. Finding the area of square ABCD and subtracting only the area of the red shape will give the area of only the green shape.

Since ABCD is a square, angle BAC is a right angle that sits at the center of the circle (point A). Since a right angle is 90o and a circle is 360o, the red shape's area must be one quarter (or ) of the entire circle's area. Use the equation  to find the area of the entire circle, then multiply this by  to find the area of only the red shape.

 

Subtracting this from the area of the square gives the area of the green area outside of the circle.

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