Browse · MATH
Printjmc
geometry intermediate
Problem
What is the area in square units of the quadrilateral XYZW shown below? 
Solution
We try splitting the quadrilateral into two triangles by drawing the segment . We see that is a right triangle. We can use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve for the length of the hypotenuse, or we notice that and are part of a multiple of the Pythagorean triple : . So the length of the hypotenuse if is a right triangle is units. Now we look at to see if it is also a right triangle. We can use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve for the leg , or we see if and are part of a multiple of a Pythagorean triple. We have . So we have a multiple of the Pythagorean triple : . Notice that both triangles give us , so we can safely assume that they are right triangles and the assumption is consistent with the drawing. In a right triangle, the base and height are the two legs, so the area of is and the area of is . The area of the quadrilateral is the sum of the areas of the two triangles, so the area of the quadrilateral is square units.
Final answer
2304