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SAT Math 2.2 Geometry and Measurement 220 Views


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SAT Math 2.2 Geometry and Measurement. What is the value of z?


Transcript

00:02

We suggest you take the math of least resistance.

00:08

In the graph below, AB equals CD. What is the value of z?

00:12

Here are the potential answers...

00:16

First of all, we don’t see any triangles in this diagram… but we’re about to.

00:19

Let’s draw ourselves an imaginary right triangle… or an actual one, if you’ve

00:23

got a marker and don’t mind drawing on your computer monitor…

00:26

…with CD as the hypotenuse. We can tell by subtracting the x and y values

00:30

from the coordinates that one leg will have a length of 3…

00:33

…and the other will have a length of 4.

00:35

We should be able to recognize that this is a 3, 4, 5 triangle…

00:39

Since we are told that both lines, or in our case, both hypotenuses, are of equal length…

00:44

…we know that the side lengths of our second right triangle must be 3 and 4 as well.

00:49

If we look at the difference between the x values, we can see that -3.5 is three units

00:54

left of -0.5. Which tells us that the OTHER leg must be

00:58

FOUR units in length. We’re given the y value of 1.5…

01:01

…so for the leg of our triangle to have a length of 4, the other y value must be -2.5.

01:07

And we’ve got our answer – option C.

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