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Right triangles and trigonometry SAT question

Math · Geometry and Trigonometry · Hard · Answer it here, explanation included.

An isosceles right triangle has a perimeter of inches. What is the length, in inches, of one leg of this triangle?

ExplanationShow

Choice B is correct. It's given that the right triangle is isosceles. In an isosceles right triangle, the two legs have equal lengths, and the length of the hypotenuse is times the length of one of the legs. Let  represent the length, in inches, of each leg of the isosceles right triangle. It follows that the length of the hypotenuse is inches. The perimeter of a figure is the sum of the lengths of the sides of the figure. Therefore, the perimeter of the isosceles right triangle is  inches. It's given that the perimeter of the triangle is  inches. It follows that . Factoring the left-hand side of this equation yields , or . Dividing both sides of this equation by  yields . Rationalizing the denominator of the right-hand side of this equation by multiplying the right-hand side of the equation by yields . Applying the distributive property to the numerator and to the denominator of the right-hand side of this equation yields . This is equivalent to , or . Therefore, the length, in inches, of one leg of the isosceles right triangle is .

Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice C is incorrect. This is the length, in inches, of the hypotenuse.

Choice D is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

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