GMAT Math : Geometry

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GMAT Math

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Example Questions

Example Question #2 : Calculating The Length Of The Side Of A Rectangle

The length of a rectangle is twice its width. If the rectangle's area is , what is its length?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We're told the length is twice the width so  

Remember, we're being asked for the length, not the width so:

Example Question #3 : Calculating The Length Of The Side Of A Rectangle

A rectangle with a perimeter of  has a width  times that of its length. Find its length.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The perimeter of a rectangle is found by . Since we are told , we can substitute this into our equation and solve for the length.

Example Question #8 : Calculating The Length Of The Side Of A Rectangle

The perimeter of a rectange equals  The length of the rectange equals four less than three times the width. What are the measurements of the length  and  of this rectangle?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The perimeter of a rectangle can be found by the following formula:   Let's substitute our values from the problem statement:

.

We also know from the second line that  Let's substitute that back into the perimeter equation, and solve for width. Then, we plug that back into the other eqution to get the answer for length. 

Example Question #1 : Calculating The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Rectangle

A rectangle has a length of  and a width of . What is the length of the diagonal of the rectangle?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

If the rectangle has a length of  and a width of , we can imagine the diagonal as being the hypotenuse of a right triangle. The length and width are the other two sides to this triangle, so we can use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the length of the diagonal of the rectangle:

Example Question #1 : Calculating The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Rectangle

A rectangle has a length of  and a width of . What is the length of the diagonal of the rectangle?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The diagonal of a rectangle can be thought of as the hypotenuse of a right triangle with the length and width of the rectangle as the other two sides. This means we can use the Pythagorean theorem to solve for the diagonal of a rectangle if we are given its length and its width:

Example Question #2 : Calculating The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Rectangle

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 is a rectangle,  and . What is the length of the diagonal of the rectangle?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Here, we also have a  triangle, indeed both ADC and ABD are   triangles. We can see that by calculating the missing angles. in each triangle we find that this angle to be 30 degrees. Since , we also know that the other sides of the triangles will be  and , since a   triangle have its sides in ratio , where  is a constant. In this case . Therefore the hypotenuse will be , which is also the length of the diagonal of the rectangle.

Example Question #3 : Calculating The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Rectangle

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Rectangle  has an area of  and . What is the length of the diagonal ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Firstly, before we try to set up an equation for the length of the sides and the area, we should notice that the area is a perfect square. Indeed . Now let's try to see whether 13 could be the length of two consecutive sides of the rectangle, Indeed, we are told that , therefore ABDC is a square with side 13 and with diagonal , where  is the length of the side of the square. Therefore, the final answer is .

Example Question #4 : Calculating The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Rectangle

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Rectangle , has area  and . What is the length of diagonal ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the length of the sides to calculate the length of the diagonal with the Pythagorean Theorem, we would need to set up two equations for our variables. However, trial and error, in my opinion in most GMAT problems is faster than trying to solve a quadratic equation. The way we should test values for our sides is firstly by finding the different possible factors of the area, that way we can see possible factors.

As follows  has possible factors . From these values we should find the two that will give us 8, the length of the two consecutive sides.

We find that  and  are the values for the two sides.

Now we just need to apply the Pythagorean Theorem to find the length of the diagonal: ,  or .

Example Question #1 : Calculating The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Rectangle

Find the length of the diagonal of a rectangle whose sides are lengths .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the diagonal, you must use the pythaorean theorem. Thus:

Example Question #2 : Calculating The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Rectangle

Calculate the length of the diagonal of a rectangle whose width is  and length is .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To solve, simply use the Pythagorean theorem.

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