sat suite question viewer

Geometry and Trigonometry / Right triangles and trigonometry Difficulty: Medium

What is the value of $\cos A$ in the triangle shown?

Back question 32 of 54 Next

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54

Explanation

Choice B is correct. The cosine of an acute angle in a right triangle is defined as the ratio of the length of the leg adjacent to the angle to the length of the hypotenuse. In the triangle shown, the length of the leg adjacent to angle $A$ is $41$ , and the length of the hypotenuse is $42$ . Therefore, $\cos A = \frac{41}{42}$ .

Choice A is incorrect. This is the value of $StartFraction 1 Over cosine upper A EndFraction$ .

Choice C is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.

Choice D is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.