Skip to Main Content

Source: Official Guide for the GMAT 13th Ed. Data Sufficiency; #113 Official Guide for the GMAT 2015 14th Ed. Data Sufficiency; #113

2

In triangle ABC, point X is the

In triangle ABC, point X is the midpoint of side AC and point Y is the midpoint f side BC. If point R is the midpoint of line segment XC and if point S is the midpoint of line segment YC, what is the area of triangular region RCS?

1 Explanation

3

Gravatar Mike McGarry, Magoosh Tutor

Jan 4, 2014 • Comment

Douglas Sierra

How do you know that Triangle ABX is half the area of Triangle ABC? Is it enough to assume that if AC is the base and AX= 1/2 AC?

Jan 13, 2017 • Reply

Sam Kinsman

Hi Douglas,

Let's think about the are of triangle ABC. We can make base of the triangle AC, and the height will be the distance between B and the line AC. So the area of triangle ABC is:

AC * (distance between B and the line AC) / 2

Now let's consider the are of triangle ABX. We can make base of the triangle is AX. This is exactly half of the length of AB. The height of the triangle is the distance between B and the line AC. So the height of this triangle is the same as the height of triangle ABC. So the area of triangle ABX is:

AX * (distance between B and the line AC) / 2

So the only difference between the formula for the area of ABC and the formula for the area of ABX is that for ABC, we are using AC, and for ABX we are using AX. We know that AX is half of AC. Therefore, the area of ABX must be half as large as the area of ABC.

Jan 14, 2017 • Reply

Add Your Explanation

You must have a Magoosh account in order to leave an explanation.

Learn More About Magoosh

Official GMAT Material

Official Guide for GMAT Review 2016

Official Guide for the GMAT 13th Ed.

Official Guide for the GMAT 2015 14th Ed.

Nova's GRE Prep

Official Guide for the GMAT 12th Ed.

Revised GRE PDF 2nd Ed.


Section 6.3 Data Sufficiency

Section 6.3 Data Sufficiency

Improve Your Score

Magoosh GMAT is an affordable online course for studying the GMAT.

Learn More About Magoosh

Share Post

Email

Facebook