Problem Solving

Disclaimer : Posting for fun, not GMAT related stuff at all

Its a old trick and many might have seen it, since its Math related felt like sharing.

Could anyone explain the missing space in the figure? (As for any GMAT problem, take no longer than 2 mins or give up)

I will try

well the hypotenuses for red and darkgreen triangles are having different slopes.
though they look like straight lines, actually they are not.
green one has 2/5 slope
red one has 3/8 slope

since slopes are different for different pieces,
it is wrong to apply area formula for the entire triangle.
so we need to apply for individual pieces and we need to add them.then you can conserve the area after changing the structure of individual pieces.

user123321

user123321 wrote:I will try

well the hypotenuses for red and darkgreen triangles are having different slopes.
though they look like straight lines, actually they are not.
green one has 2/5 slope
red one has 3/8 slope

since slopes are different for different pieces,
it is wrong to apply area formula for the entire triangle.
so we need to apply for individual pieces and we need to add them.then you can conserve the area after changing the structure of individual pieces.

user123321

Nailed it!

Quite liked you explanation user123321 !! I remember it took me a day to figure this out as a kid