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Printjmc
geometry intermediate
Problem
In the diagram, is right-angled at with and The point is on so that is perpendicular to Determine the length of 
Solution
By the Pythagorean Theorem, so
(We could also have found without using the Pythagorean Theorem by noticing that is a right-angled triangle with its right-angle at and and This means that is similar to a 3-4-5 triangle, and so )
Since is right-angled at its area is Since is perpendicular to then the area of is also equal to Therefore, so By the Pythagorean Theorem, Thus,
An alternative solution comes by noticing that and are similar. Therefore or This tells us that
(We could also have found without using the Pythagorean Theorem by noticing that is a right-angled triangle with its right-angle at and and This means that is similar to a 3-4-5 triangle, and so )
Since is right-angled at its area is Since is perpendicular to then the area of is also equal to Therefore, so By the Pythagorean Theorem, Thus,
An alternative solution comes by noticing that and are similar. Therefore or This tells us that
Final answer
64