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malolakrupa
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I think the answer for this question is 1/2 , could some one verify it?
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Be very careful about making assumptions about angles. If two sides of a triangle are 1 and 1, then it's certainly isosceles, but it doesn't need to be a right triangle. Indeed, as you can probably judge from the diagram, the angle at C will be quite a bit larger than 90 degrees.malolakrupa wrote:Ian ,
I got this problem from the archives . The reaosn I say that the area is 1/2 is due to the fact that BC is 1 and CE is 1 . Hence BCE is an isoceles right angle triangle having base (BC) = 1 and height as CE(1) . Hence the answer 1/2
Let me know if i am wrong.
Thanks
And again, take care when making assumptions about angles. BCE should be 135, and when you draw the perpendicular from BE to C, you'll be cutting that angle precisely in half (since you're cutting the isosceles triangle BCE in half), so you should get a 22.5-67.5-90 triangle, and not a 30-60-90 triangle. Actually, if you use trigonometry, this leads to a fourth solution: the base BE is just 2*sin(67.5) and the height is cos(67.5), so the area is sin(67.5)*cos(67.5). Not a convenient solution for the GMAT though.parallel_chase wrote: I drew a perpendicular from point C to line BE. These will give two right angled triangles and with hypotenuse of 1.
Angles will be 30, 60, 90, therefore following would be the sides of the triangle 1/2, sqrt3/2, 1.