SAT II Math I : Finding Sides

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT II Math I

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Example Questions

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

A kite has two perpendicular interior diagonals. One diagonal has a measurement of  and the area of the kite is . Find the length of the other interior diagonal.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

This problem can be solved by applying the area formula: 



Since this question provides the area of the kite and length of one diagonal, plug that information into the equation to solve for the missing diagonal. 

Thus the solution is: 







Example Question #8 : How To Find The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Kite

A kite has two perpendicular interior diagonals. One diagonal has a measurement of  and the area of the kite is . Find the sum of the two perpendicular interior diagonals.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

You must find the length of the missing diagonal before you can find the sum of the two perpendicular diagonals. 

To find the missing diagonal, apply the area formula: 




This question provides the area of the kite and length of one diagonal, plug that information into the equation to solve for the missing diagonal. 










Therefore, the sum of the two diagonals is: 

Example Question #9 : How To Find The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Kite

Kite vt act

The area of the kite shown above is  and the red diagonal has a length of . Find the length of the black (horizontal) diagonal. 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the length of the black diagonal apply the area formula: 



Since this question provides the area of the kite and length of one diagonal, plug that information into the equation to solve for the missing diagonal. 

Thus the solution is: 







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

What is the length of the diagonals of trapezoid ? Assume the figure is an isoceles trapezoid.

Trapezoid

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the length of the diagonal, we need to use the Pythagorean Theorem. Therefore, we need to sketch the following triangle within trapezoid :

Trapezoid

We know that the base of the triangle has length . By subtracting the top of the trapezoid from the bottom of the trapezoid, we get:

Dividing by two, we have the length of each additional side on the bottom of the trapezoid:

Adding these two values together, we get .

The formula for the length of diagonal  uses the Pythagoreon Theorem:

, where  is the point between  and  representing the base of the triangle.

Plugging in our values, we get:

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

Find the length of both diagonals of this quadrilateral.

Trapezoid 1

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

All of the lengths with one mark have length 5, and all of the side lengths with two marks have length 4. With this knowledge, we can add side lengths together to find that one diagonal is the hypotenuse to this right triangle:

Trapezoid solution 3

Using Pythagorean Theorem gives:

take the square root of each side

Similarly, the other diagonal can be found with this right triangle:

Trapezoid solution 4

Once again using Pythagorean Theorem gives an answer of

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

Find the length of the diagonals of this isosceles trapezoid, with .

Trapezoid 2

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the length of the diagonals, split the top side into 3 sections as shown below:

Trapezoid solution 1

The two congruent sections plus 8 adds to 14. , so the two congruent sections add to 6. They must each be 3. This means that the top of the right triangle with the diagonal as a hypotenuse must be 11, since .

Trapezoid solution 2

We can solve for the diagonal, now pictured, using Pythagorean Theorem:

take the square root of both sides

Example Question #1 : How To Find The Area Of A Rhombus

Assume quadrilateral  is a rhombus. The perimeter of  is , and the length of one of its diagonals is . What is the area of ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To solve for the area of the rhombus , we must use the equation , where  and  are the diagonals of the rhombus. Since the perimeter of the rhombus is , and by definition all 4 sides of a rhombus have the same length, we know that the length of each side is . We can find the length of the other diagonal if we recognize that the two diagonals combined with a side edge form a right triangle. The length of the hypotenuse is , and each leg of the triangle is equal to one-half of each diagonal. We can therefore set up an equation involving Pythagorean's Theorem as follows:

, where  is equal to one-half the length of the unknown diagonal.

We can therefore solve for  as follows:

 is therefore equal to 8, and our other diagonal is 16. We can now use both diagonals to solve for the area of the rhombus:

The area of rhombus  is therefore equal to 

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

Rhombus_1

 is a rhombus with side length . Diagonal  has a length of . Find the length of diagonal .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

A rhombus is a quadrilateral with four sides of equal length. Rhombuses have diagonals that bisect each other at right angles.

Rhombus_2

Thus, we can consider the right triangle  to find the length of diagonal . From the problem, we are given that the sides are  and . Because the diagonals bisect each other, we know:

Using the Pythagorean Theorem,

Example Question #11 : Finding Sides

Rhombus_1

 is a rhombus.  and . Find .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

A rhombus is a quadrilateral with four sides of equal length. Rhombuses have diagonals that bisect each other at right angles.

Rhombus_2

Thus, we can consider the right triangle  to find the length of diagonal . From the problem, we are given that the sides are  and . Because the diagonals bisect each other, we know:

Using the Pythagorean Theorem,

Example Question #11 : How To Find The Length Of The Diagonal Of A Rhombus

Rhombus_1

 is a rhombus.  and . Find the length of the sides.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

A rhombus is a quadrilateral with four sides of equal length. Rhombuses have diagonals that bisect each other at right angles.

Rhombus_2

Thus, we can consider the right triangle  to find the length of side . From the problem, we are given  and . Because the diagonals bisect each other, we know:

Using the Pythagorean Theorem,

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