All ISEE Upper Level Quantitative Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #6 : How To Find The Area Of A Square
Four squares have sidelengths one meter, 120 centimeters, 140 centimeters, and 140 centimeters. Which is the greater quantity?
(A) The mean of their areas
(B) The median of their areas
(A) and (B) are equal
It is impossible to tell which is greater from the information given
(A) is greater
(B) is greater
(B) is greater
The areas of the squares are:
square centimeters (one meter being 100 centimeters)
square centimeters
square centimeters
square centimeters
The mean of these four areas is their sum divided by four:
square centimeters.
The median is the mean of the two middle values, or
square centimeters.
The median, (B), is greater.
Example Question #9 : How To Find The Area Of A Square
The perimeter of a square is . Give the area of the square in terms of .
None of the other responses gives a correct answer.
The length of one side of a square is one fourth its perimeter. Since the perimeter of the square is , the length of one side is
The area of the square is the square of this sidelength, or
Example Question #5 : How To Find The Area Of A Square
The sidelength of a square is . Give its area in terms of .
The area of a square is the square of its sidelength. Therefore, square :
Example Question #21 : Quadrilaterals
A diagonal of a square has length . Give its area.
A square being a rhombus, its area can be determined by taking half the product of the lengths of its (congruent) diagonals:
Example Question #221 : Plane Geometry
The lengths of the sides of ten squares form an arithmetic sequence. One side of the smallest square measures sixty centimeters; one side of the second-smallest square measures one meter.
Give the area of the largest square, rounded to the nearest square meter.
22 square meters
16 square meters
18 square meters
20 square meters
24 square meters
18 square meters
Let be the lengths of the sides of the squares in meters. and , so their common difference is
The arithmetic sequence formula is
The length of a side of the largest square - square 10 - can be found by substituting :
The largest square has sides of length 4.2 meters, so its area is the square of this, or square meters.
Of the choices, 18 square meters is closest.
Example Question #21 : Squares
The areas of six squares form an arithmetic sequence. The smallest square has perimeter 16; the second smallest square has perimeter 20. Give the area of the largest of the six squares.
The two smallest squares have perimeters 16 and 20, so their sidelengths are one fourth of these, or, respectively, 4 and 5. Their areas are the squares of these, or, respectively, 16 and 25. Therefore, in the arithmetic sequence,
and the common difference is .
The area of the th smallest square is
Setting , the area of the largest (or sixth-smallest) square is
Example Question #22 : Quadrilaterals
Which is the greater quantity?
(a) The area of a square with sides of length meters
(b) The area of a square with perimeter centimeters
(a) and (b) are equal
(a) is the greater quantity
It cannot be determined which of (a) and (b) is greater
(b) is the greater quantity
(a) is the greater quantity
A square with perimeter centimeters has sides of length one-fourth of this, or centimeters. Since one meter is equal to 100 centimeters, divide by 100 to get the equivalent in meters - this is
meters.
The square in (b) has sidelength less than that of the square in (a), so its area is also less than that in (a).
Example Question #23 : Squares
On the coordinate plane, Square A has as one side a segment with its endpoints at the origin and at the point with coordinates . Square B has as one side a segment with its endpoints at the origin and at the point with coordinates . and are both positive numbers and . Which is the greater quantity?
(a) The area of Square A
(b) The area of Square B
(a) and (b) are equal
It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given
(b) is the greater quantity
(a) is the greater quantity
(a) and (b) are equal
The length of a segment with endpoints and can be found using the distance formula with , , :
The length of a segment with endpoints and can be found using the distance formula with , , :
The sides are of equal length, so the squares have equal area. Note that the fact that is irrelevant to the question.
Example Question #231 : Geometry
On the coordinate plane, Square A has as one side a segment with its endpoints at the origin and at the point with coordinates . Square B has as one side a segment with its endpoints at the origin and at the point with coordinates . and are both positive numbers and . Which is the greater quantity?
(a) The area of Square A
(b) The area of Square B
It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given
(b) is the greater quantity
(a) and (b) are equal
(a) is the greater quantity
(b) is the greater quantity
The length of a segment with endpoints and can be found using the distance formula with , , :
This is the length of one side of Square A; the area of the square is the square of this, or .
By similar reasoning, the length of a segment with endpoints and is
and the area of Square B is
.
Since , and both are positive, it follows that
Square B has the greater area.
Example Question #232 : Geometry
On the coordinate plane, Square A has as one side a segment with its endpoints at the origin and at the point with coordinates . Square B has as one side a segment with its endpoints at the origin and at the point with coordinates . and are both positive numbers. Which is the greater quantity?
(a) The area of Square A
(b) The area of Square B
(a) is the greater quantity
(a) and (b) are equal
(b) is the greater quantity
It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given
It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given
It can be proved that the given information is insufficient to answer the question by looking at two cases.
Case 1:
Square A has as a side a segment with endpoints at and , the length of which can be found using the distance formula with , , :
This is the length of one side of Square A; the area of the square is the square of this, or 52.
Square B has as a side a segment with endpoints at and , the length of which can be found the same way:
This is the length of one side of Square B; the area of the square is the square of this, or 50. This makes Square A the greater in area.
Case 2:
Square A has as a side a segment with endpoints at and ; this was found earlier to be a square of area 50.
Square B has as a side a segment with endpoints at and , the length of which can be found using the distance formula with , , :
This is the length of one side of Square B; the area of the square is the square of this, or 52. This makes Square B the greater in area.
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