All ISEE Upper Level Quantitative Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : How To Find If Triangles Are Similar
and are right triangles, with right angles , respectively. and .
Which is the greater quantity?
(a)
(b)
(a) and (b) are equal.
It is impossible to tell from the information given.
(a) is greater.
(b) is greater.
(a) is greater.
Each right triangle is a triangle, making each triangle isosceles by the Converse of the Isosceles Triangle Theorem.
Since and are the right triangles, the legs are , and the hypotenuses are .
By the Theorem, and .
, so and subsequently, .
Example Question #2 : How To Find If Triangles Are Similar
Figure NOT drawn to scale.
In the above figure, is a right angle.
What is the ratio of the area of to that of ?
169 to 25
12 to 5
144 to 25
13 to 5
144 to 25
The altitude of a right triangle from the vertex of its right angle divides the triangle into two smaller, similar triangles.
The similarity ratio of to can be found by determining the ratio of one pair of corresponding sides; we will use the short leg of each, and .
is also the long leg of , so its length can be found using the Pythagorean Theorem:
The similarity ratio is therefore
.
The ratio of the areas is the square of this ratio:
- that is, 144 to 25.
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