Question Bank / Math / Lines, Angles, and Triangles
Lines, angles, and triangles SAT question
Math · Geometry and Trigonometry · Hard · Answer it here, explanation included.
In triangle , angle is a right angle, point lies on , point lies on , and is parallel to . If the length of is units, the length of is units, and the area of triangle is square units, what is the length of , in units?
Enter a number or fraction (like 3/17 or 0.176). Press Enter to check.
ExplanationShow
The correct answer is . It's given that in triangle , angle is a right angle. The area of a right triangle can be found using the formula , where represents the area of the right triangle, represents the length of one leg of the triangle, and represents the length of the other leg of the triangle. In triangle , the two legs are and . Therefore, if the length of is and the area of triangle is , then , or . Dividing both sides of this equation by yields . Therefore, the length of is . It's also given that point lies on , point lies on , and is parallel to . It follows that angle is a right angle. Since triangles and share angle and have right angles and , respectively, triangles and are similar triangles. Therefore, the ratio of the length of to the length of is equal to the ratio of the length of to the length of . If the length of is and the length of is , it follows that the ratio of the length of to the length of is , or , so the ratio of the length of to the length of is . Therefore, . Multiplying both sides of this equation by yields . Dividing both sides of this equation by yields . Since the length of , , is the sum of the length of , , and the length of , it follows that the length of is , or . Note that 44/3, 14.66, and 14.67 are examples of ways to enter a correct answer.
Drill this skill on Aceit
Adaptive practice, a daily plan, and score tracking take a free account so we can save your work.
More Lines, angles, and triangles questions
- Triangle upper A upper C upper D partially overlaps triangle upper E upper B upper D. Point upper C is on line segment upper B upper D. Point upper E is on line segment upper A upp
- From left to right, horizontal line segment upper P upper V includes the following points: Upper P Upper Q Upper R Upper S Upper T Upper V Points upper X and upper U are each bel
- What is the value of x ?
- Clockwise from top left, the 3 lines are labeled t, m, and n. Line t intersects both line m and line n. At the intersection of line t and line m, 1 angle is labeled clockwise from
- In the given triangle, and has a measure of . What is the value of x ?
- In the figure above, and intersect at point P, , and . What is the measure, in degrees, of ? (Disregard the degree symbol when gridding your answer.)