All GMAT Math Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #13 : Calculating The Length Of A Radius
A arc of a circle measures . Give the radius of this circle.
A arc of a circle is of the circle. Since the length of this arc is , the circumference is this, or
The radius of a circle is its circumference divided by ; therefore, the radius is
Example Question #14 : Calculating The Length Of A Radius
The arc of a circle measures . The chord of the arc, , has length . Give the length of the radius of the circle.
A circle can be divided into congruent arcs that measure
.
If the (congruent) chords are constructed, the figure will be a regular hexagon. The radius of this hexagon will be equal to the length of one side - one chord of the circle; this radius will coincide with the radius of the circle. Therefore, the radius of the circle is the length of chord , or .
Example Question #15 : Calculating The Length Of A Radius
If a monster truck's wheels have circumference of , what is the distance from the ground to the center of the wheel?
If a monster truck's wheels have circumference of , what is the distance from the ground to the center of the wheel?
This question is asking us to find the radius of a circle. the distance from the outside of the circle to the center is the radius. We are given the circumference, so use the following formula:
Then, plug in what we know and solve for r
Example Question #311 : Gmat Quantitative Reasoning
Two circles in the same plane have the same center. The smaller circle has radius 10; the area of the region between the circles is . What is the radius of the larger circle?
The area of a circle with radius is .
Let be the radius of the larger circle. Its area is . The area of the smaller circle is . Since the area of the region between the circles is , and is the difference of these areas, we have
The smaller circle has radius .
Example Question #1 : Calculating Circumference
A circle on the coordinate plane has equation
Which of the following represents its circumference?
The equation of a circle centered at the origin is
where is the radius of the circle.
In this equation, , so ; this simplifies to
The circumference of a circle is , so substitute :
Example Question #1 : Calculating Circumference
A circle on the coordinate plane has equation
What is its circumference?
The standard form of the area of a circle with radius and center is
Once we get the equation in standard form, we can find radius , and multiply it by to get the circumference.
Complete the squares:
so can be rewritten as follows:
,
so
And
Example Question #71 : Geometry
On average, Stephanie walks feet every seconds. If Stephanie walks at her usual pace, how long will it take her to walk around a circular track with a radius of feet, in seconds?
None of the other answers are correct.
seconds
seconds
seconds
seconds
seconds
The length of the track equals the circumference of the circle.
Therefore, .
Example Question #72 : Geometry
A circle on the coordinate plane has equation .
What is its circumference?
The equation of a circle centered at the origin is
,
where is the radius of the circle.
In the equation given in the question stem, , so .
The circumference of a circle is , so substitute :
Example Question #2 : Calculating Circumference
Let be concentric circles. Circle has a radius of , and the shortest distance from the edge of circle to the edge of circle is . What is the circumference of circle ?
Since are concentric circles, they share a common center, like sections of a bulls-eye target. Since the radius of is less than half the distance from the edge of to the edge of , we must have circle is inside of circle . (It's helpful to draw a picture to see what's going on!)
Now we can find the radius of by adding and , which is And the equation for finding circumfrence is . Plugging in for gives .
Example Question #2 : Calculating Circumference
Consider the Circle :
(Figure not drawn to scale.)
Suppose Circle represents a circular pen for Frank's mules. How many meters of fencing does Frank need to build this pen?
We need to figure out the length of fencing needed to surround a circular enclosure, or in other words, the circumference of the circle.
Circumference equation:
Where is our radius, which is in this case. Plug it in and simplify:
And we have our answer!