BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

No of triangles

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Post Reply
Previous Topic Next Topic
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 423
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2010 7:59 am
Location: Seattle, WA
Thanked: 86 times
Followed by:2 members

No of triangles

by srcc25anu » Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:03 pm
How many triangles can be drawn with 17 points, if 5, 7 and 8 of them are in three different lines? The three lines intersect each other in pairs.
1. 680
2. 136
3. 569
4. 171
Top
Source: — Problem Solving |
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 406
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:36 am
Location: Syracuse, NY
Thanked: 23 times
Followed by:4 members
GMAT Score:740

by tomada » Thu Mar 10, 2011 4:13 pm
Where did you find that problem?

srcc25anu wrote:How many triangles can be drawn with 17 points, if 5, 7 and 8 of them are in three different lines? The three lines intersect each other in pairs.
1. 680
2. 136
3. 569
4. 171
I'm really old, but I'll never be too old to become more educated.
Top
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 139
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2010 4:45 pm
Location: Boston
Thanked: 20 times
Followed by:1 members
GMAT Score:720

by stormier » Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:25 pm
srcc25anu wrote:How many triangles can be drawn with 17 points, if 5, 7 and 8 of them are in three different lines? The three lines intersect each other in pairs.
1. 680
2. 136
3. 569
4. 171
Number of 3 point combinations = 17C3 = 680

Of these there are several 3-point combinations that lie on a straight line and do not form a triangle, so we need to discount them.

Number of 3 point combinations that lie on a straight line = 8C3 + 5C3 + 7C3 = 101

Thus number of unique triangles = 680 - 101 = 579

This is a really tough problem. What's the OA ?
Top
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 423
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2010 7:59 am
Location: Seattle, WA
Thanked: 86 times
Followed by:2 members

by srcc25anu » Thu Mar 10, 2011 7:00 pm
Stormier - I too got the same answer 579 using the same methodology that u have applied. the OA is 569 though.
Tomada - And i dont exactly recall the source of this problem .... just happened to come across it on some forum.
stormier wrote:
srcc25anu wrote:How many triangles can be drawn with 17 points, if 5, 7 and 8 of them are in three different lines? The three lines intersect each other in pairs.
1. 680
2. 136
3. 569
4. 171
Number of 3 point combinations = 17C3 = 680

Of these there are several 3-point combinations that lie on a straight line and do not form a triangle, so we need to discount them.

Number of 3 point combinations that lie on a straight line = 8C3 + 5C3 + 7C3 = 101

Thus number of unique triangles = 680 - 101 = 579

This is a really tough problem. What's the OA ?
Top
Post new topic Post Reply
• Page 1 of 1