Geometry

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ACT Math › Geometry

Questions 1 - 10

What is the volume of a sphere with a diameter of 6 in?

$36\pi\ in^{3}$

$216\pi\ in^{3}$

$108\pi\ in^{3}$

$72\pi\ in^{3}$

$288\pi\ in^{3}$

Explanation

The formula for the volume of a sphere is:

$V=\frac{4}{3}\pi r^{3}$

where = radius. The diameter is 6 in, so the radius will be 3 in.

The perimeter of a square is 48. What is the length of its diagonal?

$12\sqrt{2}$

$\sqrt{12}$

$24\sqrt{2}$

$48\sqrt{2}$

$2\sqrt{12}$

Explanation

Perimeter = side * 4

48 = side * 4

Side = 12

We can break up the square into two equal right triangles. The diagonal of the sqaure is then the hypotenuse of these two triangles.

Therefore, we can use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve for the diagonal:

$\sqrt{144+144}=\sqrt{hypotenuse^2}$

$hypotenuse=\sqrt{2\times 144}=\sqrt{2\times 12\times 12}=12\sqrt{2}$

A square with a side length of 4 inches is inscribed in a circle, as shown below. What is the area of the unshaded region inside of the circle, in square inches?

Act_math_01

8π - 16

4π-4

8π-4

2π-4

8π-8

Explanation

Using the Pythagorean Theorem, the diameter of the circle (also the diagonal of the square) can be found to be 4√2. Thus, the radius of the circle is half of the diameter, or 2√2. The area of the circle is then π(2√2)2, which equals 8π. Next, the area of the square must be subtracted from the entire circle, yielding an area of 8π-16 square inches.

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In the figure above, is a square and is three times the length of . What is the area of ?

Explanation

Assigning the length of ED the value of x, the value of AE will be 3_x_. That makes the entire side AD equal to 4_x_. Since the figure is a square, all four sides will be equal to 4_x_. Also, since the figure is a square, then angle A of triangle ABE is a right angle. That gives triangle ABE sides of 3_x_, 4_x_ and 10. Using the Pythagorean theorem:

(3_x_)2 + (4_x_)2 = 102

9_x_2 + 16_x_2 = 100

25_x_2 = 100

_x_2 = 4

x = 2

With x = 2, each side of the square is 4_x_, or 8. The area of a square is length times width. In this case, that's 8 * 8, which is 64.

The long diagonal of a kite measures inches, and cuts the shorter diagonal into two pieces. If one of those pieces measures inches, what is the length in inches of the short diagonal?

Explanation

The long diagonal of a kite always bisects the short diagonal. Therefore, if one side of the bisected diagonal is inches, the entire diagonal is inches. It does not matter how long the long diagonal is.

Find the area of a kite with diagonal lengths of and .

Explanation

Write the formula for the area of a kite.

$A= \frac{d1\cdot d2}{2}$

Plug in the given diagonals.

$A= \frac{(a+b)\cdot (2a-2b)}{2}$

Pull out a common factor of two in and simplify.

$A= \frac{(a+b)\cdot2(a-b)}{2}$

Use the FOIL method to simplify.

Given the following isosceles triangle:

In degrees, find the measure of the sum of $\angle x$ and $\angle$ in the figure above.

$120^\circ$

$30^\circ$

$60^\circ$

$180^\circ$

$240^\circ$

Explanation

All quadrilaterals' interior angles sum to 360°. In isosceles trapezoids, the two top angles are equal to each other.

Similarly, the two bottom angles are equal to each other as well.

Therefore, to find the sum of the two bottom angles, we subtract the measures of the top two angles from 360:

If the surface area of a cube equals 96, what is the length of one side of the cube?

Explanation

The surface area of a cube = 6a2 where a is the length of the side of each edge of the cube. Put another way, since all sides of a cube are equal, a is just the lenght of one side of a cube.

We have 96 = 6a2 → a2 = 16, so that's the area of one face of the cube.

Solving we get √16, so a = 4

Find the distance between the hour and minute hand of a clock at 2:00 with a hand length of .