ISEE Upper Level Math : Squares

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for ISEE Upper Level Math

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Example Questions

Example Question #21 : Squares

Inscribed circle

In the above diagram, the circle is inscribed inside the square. The circle has area 30. What is the area of the square?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Inscribed circle

In terms of , the area of the circle is equal to

Each side of the square has length equal to the diameter, , so its area is the square of this, or

Therefore, the ratio of the area of the square to that of the circle is

Therefore, the area of the circle is multiplied by this ratio to get the area of the square:

Substituting:

Example Question #22 : Squares

Find the area of a square with a base of 9cm.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the area of a square, we will use the following formula:

where l is the length and w is the width of the square.

 

Now, we know the base (or length) of the square is 9cm.  Because it is a square, all sides are equal.  Therefore, the width is also 9cm.  

Knowing this, we can substitute into the formula.  We get

Example Question #23 : Squares

While out walking, you find a strange, square-shaped piece of metal. If the side length of the piece is 26 inches, what is the area of the square?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

While out walking, you find a strange, square-shaped piece of metal. If the side length of the piece is 26 inches, what is the area of the square?

To find the area of a square, simply square the side length:

So, our answer is:

Example Question #24 : Squares

What is the area of the square with a side length of ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Write the formula for the area of a square.

Substitute the side into the formula.

The answer is:  

Example Question #1 : How To Find The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Square

What is the diagonal of a square with a side of 4?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Squares have all congruent sides. To find the diagonal, first recognize that you're dealing with an isoceles triangle when you draw the diagonal in the square. That means that two of the sides are congruent in the triangle. Thus, it's a special 45-45-90 triangle. In such triangles, the sides are x and the hypotenuse is . Since we know x is 4, we can plug in 4 to the expression . Thus, the answer is .

Example Question #2 : How To Find The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Square

You recently bought some special filter paper for a laboratory apparatus. The paper comes in square sheets, but you want to cut it into two equal triangle-shaped pieces. If the square sheets have a side length of , what will the length of the hypotenuse of the triangles be?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

You recently bought some special filter paper for a laboratory apparatus. The paper comes in square sheets, but you want to cut it into two equal triangle-shaped pieces. If the square sheets have a side length of , what will the length of the hypotenuse of the triangles be?

This problem is trying to distract you by thinking of triangles. What we are really asked to find here is the length of the diagonal of a square with sides of 15 inches.

Splitting a square along its diagonal yields two 45/45/90 triangles. If you know the ratios for 45/45/90 triangles, you can find the answer very quickly.

Think:

Meaning that if the two short sides are x units long, the hypotenuse will be x times the square root of two units long.

 

In our current case, our short sides are 15 inches long, so our hypotenuse will be 

 

You could also solve this with Pythagorean Theorem.

a and b are both 15 in, so we can solve.

So,our answer is 

Example Question #2 : How To Find The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Square

While out walking, you find a strange, square-shaped piece of metal. If the side length of the piece is 26 inches, what is the length of the diagonal?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

While out walking, you find a strange, square-shaped piece of metal. If the side length of the piece is 26 inches, what is the length of the diagonal?

To find the diagonal of a square, we can recognize one of two things.

1) The diagonal of a square creates a right triangle, and we can use Pythagorean theorem to find our diagonal.

2) The diagonal of a square creates two 45/45/90 triangles, with side length ratios of 

Using 2), we can find that the diagonal of the square must be 

Example Question #31 : Quadrilaterals

Your new friend has a very small, square-shaped dorm room. She tells you that it is only 225 square feet. Assuming this is true, what is the diagonal distance from one corner of her room to the other?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Your new friend has a very small, square-shaped dorm room. She tells you that it is only 225 square feet. Assuming this is true, what is the diagonal distance from one corner of her room to the other?

So, we need to find the diagonal of a square. First, we need to find the side length.

Let's begin with our formula for the area of a square:

where s is our side length and A is our area.

With this formula, we can solve for our side length by plugging in our area and square rooting both sides.

Now, to find the diagonal, we can think of an isosceles right triangle, where the two equal sides are 15 ft. This is also a 45/45/90 triangle, which means the side lengths follow the ratio of  

This means our answer is    .

We could also find this by using Pythagorean Theorem.

Example Question #1 : How To Find The Length Of The Side Of A Square

The area of a square is 169 square inches. What is the length of one side ( in the diagram below)?

342px-square_-_geometry.svg

 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Area of a quadrilateral is found by length times width. In a square, these are the same, so the length of side   is a number that, when multiplied by itself is equal to 169.

In other words, take the square root of 169 to find the length of .

Example Question #2 : How To Find The Length Of The Side Of A Square

If the perimeter of a square is 36in, what is the length of one side?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the perimeter of a square, we will use the following formula:

where a is the length of any side of the square.  Because a square has 4 equal sides, we can use any side in the formula.  To find the length of any side, we will solve for a.  

Now, we know the perimeter of the square is 36in.  So, we will substitute. 

Therefore, the length of one side of the square is 9in.

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