Skip to Main Content

Source: Official Guide for GMAT Review 2016 Problem Solving; #18

2

The figure above shows a path around a

The figure above shows a path around a triangular piece of land. Mary walked the distance of 8 miles from P to Q and then walked the distance of 6 miles from Q to R. If Ted walked directly from P to R, by what percent did the distance that Mary walked exceed the distance that Ted walked?

2 Explanations

2

Eduardo Cuan

You can calculate the hypotenuse with the Pythagorean theorem, which is: a^2 + b^2 = c^2 (c will always be the hypotenuse)

I plugged the given values:
6^2 + 8^2 = c^2
36 + 64 = c^2
100 = c^2
10 = c

Ted walked 10 miles and Mary walked 14 miles, 4 more miles than Ted.
Mary exceeded the distance by: 4/10 = 40%

Mar 13, 2016 • Comment

Cydney Seigerman, Magoosh Tutor

Yes, you're completely right, Eduardo! Thanks for sharing your solution :)

Mar 13, 2016 • Reply

1

NIKHIL BORKER

The figure shown is a right triangle.

Mary traversed the 2 legs of the triangle while Ted traversed the hypotenuse.

It is clear from the measurements that the triangle is a 3-4-5 triangle scaled up by a factor of 2. So, the 3 sides would be 6-8-10 respectively

Ted travels 10m and Mary travels 6m+8m=14m. So Mary travels 4m/10m in excess of Ted i.e. 40% in excess

Jan 23, 2016 • Comment

Cydney Seigerman, Magoosh Tutor

Great job! Yes, as you've shown, after determining that the hypotenuse of the right triangle is 10, we can calculate the % difference by subtracting the distance Mary walks (14) from the distance Ted walks (10), dividing this difference by how far Ted walks, and multiplying by 100%: (14-10)/10x100 = 40%. Thanks for contributing to the forum :)

Jan 25, 2016 • 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 5.3 Problem Solving

Improve Your Score

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

Learn More About Magoosh

Share Post

Email

Facebook