All GMAT Math Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #4 : Triangles
Which of the following right triangles is similar to one with a height of and a base of ?
In order for two right triangles to be similar, their height-to-base ratios must be equal. Given a right triangle with a height and a base , the ratio . The only answer provided with a ratio of is .
Example Question #4 : Triangles
Which of the following right triangles is similar to one with a height of and a base of ?
None of the above
In order for two right triangles to be similar, their height-to-base ratios must be equal. Given a right triangle with a height of and a base of , the ratio . The only answer provided with a ratio of is .
Example Question #6 : Right Triangles
Given two right triangles and , with right angles , what is the measure of ?
Statement 1:
Statement 2:
STATEMENT 2 ALONE provides sufficient information to answer the question, but STATEMENT 1 ALONE does NOT provide sufficient information to answer the question.
BOTH STATEMENTS TOGETHER do NOT provide sufficient information to answer the question.
STATEMENT 1 ALONE provides sufficient information to answer the question, but STATEMENT 2 ALONE does NOT provide sufficient information to answer the question.
BOTH STATEMENTS TOGETHER provide sufficient information to answer the question, but NEITHER STATEMENT ALONE provides sufficient information to answer the question.
EITHER STATEMENT ALONE provides sufficient information to answer the question.
BOTH STATEMENTS TOGETHER provide sufficient information to answer the question, but NEITHER STATEMENT ALONE provides sufficient information to answer the question.
Corresponding angles of similar triangles are congruent, so Statement 1 alone establishes that and ; similarly, Statement 2 alone establishes that and . However, neither statement alone establishes the actual measure of any of the four acute angles.
Assume both statements are true. From transitivity, it holds that . Specifically, the two acute angles of , one of which is , are congruent. Since is right, this makes and isosceles right triangle, and its acute angles, including , have measure .
Example Question #2 : Right Triangles
What is the side length of a right triangle with a hypotenuse of and a side of ?
We need to use the Pythagorean theorem:
Example Question #3 : Right Triangles
There is a big square that consists of four identical right triangles and a small square. If the area of the small square is 1, the area of the big square is 5, what is the length of the shortest side of the right triangles?
The area of the big square is 5, and area of the small square is 1. Therefore, the area of the four right triangles is .
Since the four triangles are all exactly the same, the area of each of the right triangle is 1. We know that the longer side is 2 times the shorter side, so we can represent the shorter side as and the longer side as . Then we are able to set up an equation:
.
Therefore, x, the length of the shortest side of the right triangle, is 1.
Example Question #251 : Geometry
A triangle has sides of length 9, 12, and 16. Which of the following statements is true?
The triangle is acute and scalene.
The triangle is acute and isosceles.
The triangle cannot exist.
The triangle is obtuse and isosceles.
The triangle is obtuse and scalene.
The triangle is obtuse and scalene.
This triangle can exist by the Triangle Inequality, since the sum of the lengths of its shortest two sides exceeds that of the longest side:
The sum of the squares of its shortest two sides is less than the square of that of its longest side:
This makes the triangle obtuse.
Its sides are all of different measure, which makes the triangle scalene as well.
Obtuse and scalene is the correct choice.
Example Question #7 : Right Triangles
Using the following right traingle, calculate the value of
(Not drawn to scale.)
We can determine the length of the side by using the Pythagorean Theorem:
where
Our equation is then:
Example Question #4 : Calculating The Length Of The Side Of A Right Triangle
Calculate the length of the side of the following right triangle.
(Not drawn to scale.)
We can calculate the length of the side by using the pythagorean theorem:
where our values are
we can then solve for :
Example Question #12 : Triangles
A right triangle has a hypotenuse of 13 and a height of 5. What is the length of the third side of the triangle?
In order to find the length of the third side, we need to use the Pythagorean theorem. The hypotenuse, c, is 13, and the height, a, is 5, so we can simply plug in these values and solve for b, the length of the base of the right triangle:
Example Question #3 : Calculating The Length Of The Side Of A Right Triangle
The hypotenuse of a triangle has length . Which of the following is equal to the length of its shortest leg?
The shortest leg of a triangle is one half the length of its hypotenuse. In this triangle, it is