A thin piece of wire 40 meters long is cut into two pieces. One piece is used to form a circle with radius r, and the other is used to form a square. No wire is left over. Which of the following represents the total area, in square meters, of the circular and the square regions in terms of r?
A. πr²
B. πr² +10
C. πr² + 1/4 π²r²
D. πr² + (40-2πr)²
E. πr² + (10 - (1/2)πr)²
Plug in r = 4.
Area of circle = πr² = π4² = 16π ≈ 48
Circumference of circle = 2πr = 8π ≈ 24.
Perimeter of square = remaining wire = 40-24 = 16.
Side of square = 16/4 = 4.
Area of square = 4² = 16.
Area of circle + area of square ≈ 48+16 ≈ 64. This is our target.
Now we plug r=4 into the answers to see which yields our target of 64.
Only answer choice
E works:
πr² + (10 - 1/2πr)² ≈ 3(4²) + (10 - (1/2)*3*4)² = 48+16 = 64.
The correct answer is
E.
Last edited by
GMATGuruNY on Tue Jun 14, 2011 12:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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