All GMAT Math Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #11 : Calculating An Angle In An Acute / Obtuse Triangle
, , and are all exterior angles of with vertices , , and , respectively.
Is an acute triangle, a right triangle, or an obtuse triangle?
Statement 1: , , and are all obtuse angles.
Statement 2: .
Note: For purposes of this problem, , , and will refer to the interior angles of the triangle at these vertices.
BOTH STATEMENTS TOGETHER do NOT provide 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.
STATEMENT 1 ALONE provides sufficient information to answer the question, but STATEMENT 2 ALONE does NOT provide sufficient information to answer the question.
STATEMENT 2 ALONE provides sufficient information to answer the question, but STATEMENT 1 ALONE does 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.
Assume Statement 1 alone. An exterior angle of a triangle forms a linear pair with the interior angle of the triangle of the same vertex. The two angles, whose measures total , must be two right angles or one acute angle and one obtuse angle. Since , , and are all obtuse angles, it follows that their respective interior angles - the three angles of - are all acute. This makes an acute triangle.
Statement 2 alone provides insufficient information to answer the question. For example, if and each measure and measures , the sum of the angle measures is , and are congruent, and is an obtuse angle (measuring more than ); this makes an obtuse triangle. But if , , and each measure , the sum of the angle measures is again , and are again congruent, and all three angles are acute (measuring less than ); this makes an acute triangle.
Example Question #21 : Calculating An Angle In An Acute / Obtuse Triangle
The measures of the angles of one triangle, in degrees, are .
The measures of the angles of a second triangle, in degrees, are .
What is ?
The degree measures of the angles of a triangle add up to a total of 180, so we can set up the following equations:
From the first triangle:
From the second:
These equations form a system of equations that can be solved:
, so
and .
Example Question #1 : Calculating The Length Of The Hypotenuse Of An Acute / Obtuse Triangle
The largest angle of an obtuse isosceles triangle has a measure of . If the length of the two equivalent sides is , what is the length of the hypotenuse?
The height of the obtuse isosceles triangle bisects the angle and forms two congruent right triangles. The hypotenuse of each of these triangles is either side of equivalent length, and we can see that the base of either triangle makes up half of the hypotenuse of the obtuse isosceles triangle. Because we know the angle opposite each base is half of , or , we can use the sine of this angle to find the length of the base. As there are two congruent right triangles that make up the obtuse isosceles triangle, the length of either base makes up half of the overall hypotenuse, so we then multiply the result by to obtain the final answer. In the following solution, is the length of the base of one of the right triangles, is the length of the two equivalent sides, and is the length of the hypotenuse:
Example Question #592 : Problem Solving Questions
What is the area, to the nearest whole square inch, of a triangle with sides 12, 13, and 15 inches?
None of the other answers are correct.
Use Heron's formula:
where , and
Example Question #1 : Calculating The Area Of An Acute / Obtuse Triangle
Calculate the area of the triangle (not drawn to scale).
In this problem, the base is 12 and the height is 6. Therefore:
Example Question #2 : Calculating The Area Of An Acute / Obtuse Triangle
Note: Figure NOT drawn to scale.
What is the area of the above figure?
More information is needed to answer this question.
The figure is a composite of a rectangle and a triangle, as shown:
The rectangle has area
The triangle has area
The total area of the figure is
Example Question #592 : Gmat Quantitative Reasoning
Which of the following cannot be the measure of the vertex angle of an isosceles triangle?
Each of the other choices can be the measure of the vertex angle of an isosceles triangle.
Each of the other choices can be the measure of the vertex angle of an isosceles triangle.
The only restriction on the measure of the vertex angle of an isosceles triangle is the restriction on any angle of a triangle - that it fall between and , noninclusive. If is any number in that range, each base angle, the two being congruent, will measure , which will fall in the acceptable range.
Since all of these measures fall in that range, the correct response is that all are allowed.
Example Question #351 : Geometry
What is the area of the triangle on the coordinate plane formed by the -axis and the lines of the equations and ?
The easiest way to solve this is to graph the three lines and to observe the dimensions of the resulting triangle. It helps to know the coordinates of the three points of intersection, which we can do as follows:
The intersection of and the -axis - that is, the line can be found with some substitution:
The lines intersect at
The intersection of and the -axis can be found the same way:
These lines intersect at
The intersection of and can be found via the substitution method:
The lines intersect at
The triangle therefore has these three vertices. It is shown below.
As can be seen, it is a triangle with base 9 and height 12, so its area is
Example Question #3 : Calculating The Area Of An Acute / Obtuse Triangle
What is the area of a triangle on the coordinate plane with its vertices on the points ?
The vertical segment connecting and can be seen as the base of this triangle; this base has length . The height is the perpendicular (horizontal) distance from to this segment, which is 6, the same as the -coordinate of this point. The area of the triangle is therefore
.
Example Question #597 : Problem Solving Questions
Which of the following is the area of a triangle on the coordinate plane with its vertices on the points , where ?
We can view the horizontal segment connecting , and as the base; its length wiill be . The height will be the perpendicular (vertical) distance to this segment from the opposite point , which is , the -coordinate; therefore, the area of the triangle will be half the product of these two numbers, or
.