sat suite question viewer
The perimeter of an equilateral triangle is centimeters. The three vertices of the triangle lie on a circle. The radius of the circle is centimeters. What is the value of ?
Explanation
The correct answer is . Since the perimeter of a triangle is the sum of the lengths of its sides, and the given triangle is equilateral, the length of each side is , or , centimeters (cm). Right triangle can be formed, where is the midpoint of one of the triangle’s sides, is one of this side’s endpoints, and is the center of the circle. It follows that is , or , cm. Additionally, triangle has angles measuring , , and , where the measure of angle is and the measure of angle is . It follows that the length of side is half the length of hypotenuse , and the length of side is times the length of side . It’s given that cm. Therefore, cm and cm, which is equivalent to cm. Since cm, it follows that . Multiplying both sides of this equation by yields . Dividing both sides of this equation by yields . Note that 284/3, 94.66, and 94.67 are examples of ways to enter a correct answer.