Square EFGH

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Square EFGH

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sun Dec 21, 2008 10:21 am
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by mals24 » Sun Dec 21, 2008 10:42 am
IMO B

If we connect points E and G, line EG = AD.
B says ABCD is a square so AD = EG = 4. We can find the side of a square with the diagonal and hence the area.

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sun Dec 21, 2008 12:05 pm
My sincerest apologies, I forgot to add the 90 degree marks
Without them, this question is CRAZY hard.
I need to pay more attention.


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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sun Dec 21, 2008 12:56 pm
Answer: A
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by msd_2008 » Sun Dec 21, 2008 5:20 pm
I dont get this.....how can the answer be A?
Statement I tells us that Angle BEF is 60 degrees. While this is an important piece of information to derive a 30-6-90 triangle for BEF and similarly for other 3....we dont know what is the length of BF and neither BE. So how can we deduce the measure of EF?

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sun Dec 21, 2008 6:41 pm
That's a good question, MSD.
We don't actually need to find the measures of BF and BE etc. We need only show that we could (i.e., we have sufficient data to do so) find the measures.

First, we'll show that ABCD is a square [without using (1)]

Since EFGH is a square, we'll let each side of the square be of length x
You have already deduced that all of the triangles are 30-60-90 triangles, and now we know that they all have a hypotenuse of lenght x.

This means that each of the 30-60-90 triangles has lengths x/2, sqrt(3)x/2, and x

This will show that ABCD has sides of equal length so it is a square.
Now, what is the length of each side of square ABCD?
It's x/2 + sqrt(3)x/2
But we already know the length of each side of ABCD. Since the area is 16, we know that each side is length 4.

This gives us the equation x/2 + sqrt(3)x/2 = 4

This is an equation (a linear equation) with one unknown, which we could solve if we were so inclined. Solving for x would give us the dimensions of the inner square (EFGH) so we could determine its area.

So, (1) is enough info
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by msd_2008 » Sun Dec 21, 2008 7:22 pm
Thank you very much! I got it...
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by ronniecoleman » Sun Dec 21, 2008 10:32 pm
IMO A
If angle angle bef is know that we can know each and every angle..

find angle bef and cfg ... use trigo to find the lenght of outer square... in terms of inner lenght of side of inner square...
solve you are done..
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