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Elementary Mathematics 2016 (II)

Set A

Questions 61–80 of 100

61Mensuration • Plane Figures • Triangle
HardIdeal time: about 2 min

The sides of a triangle are given by , and where are positive. What is the area of the triangle equal to?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option C

Approach

Recognise the three lengths as a base together with the two slant sides made by an altitude of length that meets the base from one end.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1
    Place , ,

    Why: Take the side as the base and look for a point whose distances to its two ends are the other two given lengths.

  2. 2
    and

    Why: The horizontal offsets from to and to are and , and the vertical offset is in both cases.

  3. 3
    So the triangle has base and height .

    Why: These are exactly the three given side lengths, so this placement is the triangle described; the foot of the altitude from splits the base into and .

  4. 4

    Why: Half base times height.

Shortcut

Two of the sides are hypotenuses sharing a leg ; glue the right triangles and along that leg and the third side is , so the area is the sum .

Common mistakes

Option A

No plausible route reaches , which is not even of the right degree for an area.

Option B

Read the third side as instead of ; with all three sides of that form the triangle is the one cut from the corner of a box, whose area is indeed .

Option D

No plausible route introduces a factor here.

Skills used

62Mensuration • Plane Figures • Triangle
EasyIdeal time: about 45 s

What is area of largest triangle inscribed in a semi-circle of radius units?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option A

square units

Approach

Take the longest available base — the bounding diameter — and push the third vertex as far from it as the arc allows.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: The diameter is the longest chord of the semicircle, so no other choice of base is larger.

  2. 2

    Why: Every point of the arc is from the centre, so its distance above the diameter is at most , attained at the midpoint of the arc.

  3. 3
    square units

    Why: Half base times height, with both factors at their maxima simultaneously, so this really is the largest such triangle.

Shortcut

The largest inscribed triangle is the right isosceles one on the diameter; its legs are , so its area is .

Common mistakes

Option B

Used base height without the factor .

Option C

No plausible route reaches .

Option D

No plausible route reaches ; it is the area of the circumscribing square, not of any inscribed triangle.

Skills used

63Mensuration • Plane Figures • Circle
EasyIdeal time: about 45 s

The diameter of the front wheel of an engine is cm and that of rear wheel is cm. To cover the same distance, what is the number of times the rear wheel revolves when the front wheel revolves times?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option C

Approach

Both wheels cover the same distance; write that distance once with each wheel's circumference and equate.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1
    ,

    Why: Circumference is times the diameter, and the diameters are given as and .

  2. 2

    Why: Each revolution of the front wheel advances the engine by one front circumference.

  3. 3

    Why: The rear wheel covers the same distance, so its revolution count is that distance divided by its own circumference; cancels, so the answer depends only on the diameters.

Shortcut

Over a fixed distance, revolutions are inversely proportional to diameter, so .

Common mistakes

Option A

No plausible route reaches ; it is not even dimensionless in and .

Option B

Scaled by rear diameter over front instead of front over rear.

Option D

No plausible route reaches .

Skills used

64Mensuration • Solids • Cone
EasyIdeal time: about 1 min

For the next three (03) items that follow:

A tent of a circus is made of canvas and is in the form of right circular cylinder and right circular cone above it. The height and diameter of the cylindrical part of the tent are m and m respectively. The total height of the tent is m.

What is the slant height of the cone?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option B

m

Approach

Strip out the cone's own height from the total, then use Pythagoras with the base radius.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1
    m

    Why: The cone sits on the cylinder, so they share the base radius; the stem gives the diameter.

  2. 2
    m

    Why: The m is the total height of the tent, of which the cylindrical part accounts for m.

  3. 3
    m

    Why: The slant height is the hypotenuse of the right triangle formed by the cone's vertical height and its base radius.

Shortcut

is a Pythagorean triple, so no square root need actually be taken.

Common mistakes

Option A

No plausible route reaches m.

Option C

No plausible route reaches m.

Option D

No plausible route reaches m.

Skills used

65Mensuration • Solids • Cylinder
EasyIdeal time: about 50 s

Same directions as Q64

What is the curved surface area of the cylinder?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option A

m

Approach

Apply the cylinder's curved-surface formula to the stem's radius and cylinder height.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1
    m, m

    Why: The stem gives the cylindrical part's diameter and height directly.

  2. 2

    Why: The curved surface of a cylinder is the base circumference times the height.

  3. 3
    m

    Why: Cancel before multiplying so the arithmetic stays in two digits.

Shortcut

m is the base circumference, so the unrolled rectangle is m.

Common mistakes

Option B

No plausible route reaches m.

Option C

No plausible route reaches m.

Option D

No plausible route reaches m.

Skills used

66Mensuration • Combination of Solids
ModerateIdeal time: about 1.5 min

Same directions as Q64

How many square metres of canvas are used?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option D

Approach

The canvas is the cylinder's curved surface plus the cone's curved surface — no floor, and no circular join.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1
    m

    Why: The cylindrical wall of the tent, from the stem's m and m.

  2. 2
    m

    Why: The cone's height is m, and the slant height is needed before its curved surface can be found.

  3. 3
    m

    Why: The conical roof; keeps the multiplication small.

  4. 4
    m

    Why: Only the two curved surfaces are made of canvas: the tent has no canvas floor, and the circle where cone meets cylinder is an internal join, not a surface.

Shortcut

m in a single product.

Common mistakes

Option A

No plausible route reaches .

Option B

No plausible route reaches .

Option C

No plausible route reaches ; it is a digit transposition of the correct .

Skills used

67Mensuration • Plane Figures • Circle
ModerateIdeal time: about 1.5 min

The wheels of a car are of diameter cm each. The car is travelling at a speed of km/hour. What is the number of complete revolutions each wheel makes in minutes?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option C

Approach

Convert ten minutes of travel into centimetres, then divide by the wheel's circumference.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1
    km

    Why: Ten minutes is of an hour, and distance speed time.

  2. 2
    cm

    Why: The wheel's diameter is in centimetres, so the distance must be too: km cm.

  3. 3
    cm

    Why: One complete revolution advances the car by one circumference.

  4. 4

    Why: Divide the distance by the per-revolution distance; it comes out whole, so revolutions are complete.

Shortcut

, then ; keeping as a fraction avoids any decimal circumference.

Common mistakes

Option A

No plausible route reaches .

Option B

No plausible route reaches .

Option D

No plausible route reaches .

Skills used

68Mensuration • Plane Figures • Triangle
Very easyIdeal time: about 30 s

What is the area of a triangle with sides of length cm, cm and cm?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option A

cm

Approach

Test the sides for a right angle, then use the two legs as base and height.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: The converse of Pythagoras: the squares on the two shorter sides sum to the square on the longest, so the triangle is right-angled with cm as the hypotenuse.

  2. 2
    cm

    Why: The two legs are perpendicular, so they serve directly as base and height and Heron's formula is not needed.

Shortcut

is a standard triple; the area of a right triangle is half the product of its legs, cm.

Common mistakes

Option B

No plausible route reaches cm.

Option C

No plausible route reaches cm.

Option D

No plausible route reaches cm.

Skills used

69Mensuration • Plane Figures • Circle
EasyIdeal time: about 1 min

If the perimeter of a circle is equal to that of a square, then what is the ratio of area of circle to that of square?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option B

Approach

Write both areas in terms of the shared perimeter , then evaluate the quotient with .

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: The circle's circumference and the square's perimeter are the same quantity .

  2. 2

    Why: Solve each perimeter relation for its own length.

  3. 3

    Why: cancels, so the ratio does not depend on how big the figures are.

  4. 4
    , so the ratio is

    Why: The printed options are in integers, which forces .

Shortcut

Circle square .

Common mistakes

Option A

Quoted instead of .

Option C

No plausible route reaches ; it is , the inverse of option A.

Option D

Formed square circle rather than circle square.

Skills used

70Geometry • Circle • Arcs and Angles
ModerateIdeal time: about 1.5 min

is a con-cyclic quadrilateral of a circle with radius and centre at . If is the diameter and is parallel and half of and if the circle completes one rotation about the centre , then the locus of the middle point of is a circle of radius

Options
Show answer & solution

Option D

Approach

is a chord of length ; find how far its midpoint lies from the centre, and note that rotation about keeps that distance fixed.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1
    and

    Why: is a diameter, and the stem says is half of it.

  2. 2
    Let be the midpoint of ; then and

    Why: The segment from the centre to the midpoint of a chord is perpendicular to that chord.

  3. 3

    Why: is a radius, so is right-angled at with hypotenuse .

  4. 4
    traces a circle centred at of radius

    Why: Rotating the figure about preserves every distance from , so traces the circle of radius .

Shortcut

A chord of length subtends at the centre, so its midpoint is at from the centre.

Common mistakes

Option A

, so the point would lie outside the circle; no route reaches it.

Option B

No plausible route reaches .

Option C

Inverted the cosine, taking , which again exceeds .

Skills used

71Trigonometry • Trigonometric Identity
EasyIdeal time: about 1 min

If , then what is equal to?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option B

Approach

Square the given sum, use to extract , then build from it.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: Squaring is the one move that connects a sum of the two ratios to the identity relating their squares.

  2. 2

    Why: collapses the two square terms to , leaving only the cross term.

  3. 3

    Why: The difference has the same expansion with the cross term negated, so the quantity just found serves a second time.

  4. 4

    Why: The square root carries a sign that the question does not fix; only the positive value is printed among the options.

Shortcut

, so in one line.

Common mistakes

Option A

No route reaches : would force , not .

Option C

Expanded as , dropping the term.

Option D

is the largest value can take, recalled in place of the quantity actually asked for.

Skills used

72Trigonometry • Trigonometric Identity
ModerateIdeal time: about 1.5 min

If , then what is the value of ?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option B

Approach

Turn the given relation into , factorise the target expression into a perfect square, and substitute.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: is , so the condition says exactly that and are the same number.

  2. 2

    Why: Taking out leaves a perfect square in .

  3. 3

    Why: Both factors are squares, so the whole expression is the square of a single product.

  4. 4

    Why: Substituting reproduces the left-hand side of the given equation, which is .

  5. 5

    Why: The bracket is , so its square is .

Shortcut

Recognise .

Common mistakes

Option A

Read the condition as , making and the whole expression vanish.

Option C

Treated the square of the bracket as twice it, reporting rather than .

Option D

Ignored the given condition and put , giving .

Skills used

73Trigonometry • Heights and Distances
EasyIdeal time: about 1.5 min

A man from the top of a m high tower sees a car moving towards the tower at an angle of depression . After some time, the angle of depression becomes . What is the distance travelled by the car during this time?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option B

m

Approach

Put both angles of depression into the right triangle on the tower, find the car's distance from the foot at each moment, and subtract.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: The angle of depression from the top equals the angle of elevation from the car, so the tower's height over the far distance is .

  2. 2

    Why: The same right triangle with the later, steeper angle gives the nearer distance.

  3. 3

    Why: The car moved from the first position to the second, so what it travelled is the difference of the two distances.

  4. 4

    Why: Rationalising puts the answer in the form the options are printed in.

Shortcut

Distance .

Common mistakes

Option A

Reported , the car's distance at the first sighting, instead of the distance it covered.

Option C

Reported , the car's distance at the second sighting.

Option D

Multiplied by instead of dividing when clearing the surd, turning into .

Skills used

74Trigonometry • Heights and Distances
EasyIdeal time: about 1 min

Two men on either side of a tower m high observe the angle of elevation of the top of the tower to be and . What is the distance between the two men?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option A

m

Approach

The two men are on opposite sides, so the foot of the tower lies between them: find each man's distance from the foot and add.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: The man who sees the smaller angle of elevation is the further away.

  2. 2

    Why: The same tower, the other observer, the steeper angle.

  3. 3

    Why: Opposite sides put the foot of the tower between them, so the two distances add; on the same side they would subtract.

  4. 4

    Why: Both terms carry , so they combine directly.

Shortcut

.

Common mistakes

Option B

Reported only the far man's distance , forgetting the second observer.

Option C

Divided by where multiplying was needed, turning into .

Option D

No route reaches from a height of m with these two angles.

Skills used

75Trigonometry • Trigonometric Identity • Complementary Angles
ModerateIdeal time: about 1.5 min

What is the value of ?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option D

Approach

Pair each term with the one whose angle is its complement, so that each pair collapses by a Pythagorean identity.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: and are complementary, and the secant of an angle is the cosecant of its complement. This is what makes the second and third terms share an angle.

  2. 2

    Why: is one of the Pythagorean identities.

  3. 3

    Why: and are complementary, so the remaining two terms can also be brought to one angle.

  4. 4

    Why: The same identity, now at .

  5. 5

    Why: The expression is exactly the sum of the two pairs.

Shortcut

Group as ; each bracket is .

Common mistakes

Option A

Paired with and with , treating each pair as equal and cancelling everything.

Option B

No route reaches ; the expression is a sum of two whole numbers.

Option C

Collapsed one complementary pair and stopped, leaving the other two terms unreduced.

Skills used

76Trigonometry • Trigonometric Identity • Elimination of the Angle
ModerateIdeal time: about 2 min

If and , then what is equal to?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option C

Approach

Clear the reciprocal ratios from the second equation, substitute the first into it to get and , then form .

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: The first given, held ready to be substituted.

  2. 2

    Why: Multiplying through by clears both reciprocal ratios; neither factor is zero, since and are written down and so are defined.

  3. 3

    Why: Doubling the first relation replaces , and the left-hand side collapses to a single term.

  4. 4

    Why: Dividing by , which is non-zero.

  5. 5

    Why: Putting back into the first relation and cancelling the non-zero .

  6. 6

    Why: The Pythagorean identity removes altogether, which is why the question has a numerical answer at all.

Shortcut

The first equation says ; writing , makes the second equation , so and .

Common mistakes

Option A

Set and from the first relation alone and applied , never using the second equation to fix the scale.

Option B

Stopped at instead of squaring it.

Option D

No route reaches ; nothing in the working produces a factor of beyond the .

Skills used

77Trigonometry • Trigonometric Identity
ModerateIdeal time: about 1.5 min

If where , then what is equal to?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option D

Approach

Square the given sum to extract , then use .

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: Squaring turns the given sum into something the Pythagorean identity can act on.

  2. 2

    Why: removes the square terms, leaving the product alone.

  3. 3

    Why: Adding the two over a common denominator makes the identity appear again in the numerator, so the answer depends on the product only - which is exactly what step 2 supplies.

  4. 4

    Why: Substituting the product found in step 2.

Shortcut

.

Common mistakes

Option A

Stopped at instead of taking its reciprocal.

Option B

Identified and reported alone.

Option C

Identified and reported alone.

Skills used

78Trigonometry • Trigonometric Identity • Maximum and Minimum Values
HardIdeal time: about 2.5 min

If where , then which one of the following is correct?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option B

Approach

Write as a quadratic in and read off its least and greatest values over the that allows.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: is at and falls towards , which it never reaches because is excluded.

  2. 2

    Why: puts the whole expression in one variable.

  3. 3

    Why: Completing the square exposes both the least value and the at which it occurs.

  4. 4

    Why: The square is smallest when it is zero, and does lie in the allowed range, so this minimum is attained.

  5. 5

    Why: An upward parabola is largest at an endpoint of the interval; is attained (at ) and gives , while the other endpoint is only approached.

  6. 6

    Why: Both bounds are reached, so the inequalities are not strict.

Shortcut

, a quadratic in with vertex and endpoint value .

Common mistakes

Option A

Treated the two terms as independent, taking the maximum as and the minimum as .

Option C

Took , where , as the minimum and kept the inflated maximum .

Option D

Found the true minimum but took , the value at , as the maximum instead of testing the endpoint .

Skills used

79Trigonometry • Trigonometric Identity
ModerateIdeal time: about 1.5 min

What is equal to?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option A

Approach

Replace the bare in the numerator by , so that the numerator factorises with the denominator as one of its factors.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: The Pythagorean identity lets the constant be rewritten in the same two ratios as everything else - the one move the question turns on.

  2. 2

    Why: is a difference of two squares.

  3. 3

    Why: is common to both terms.

  4. 4

    Why: The second factor is precisely the denominator, so it cancels.

  5. 5

    Why: Both ratios already sit over , which gives the printed form.

Shortcut

Write as ; the numerator becomes .

Common mistakes

Option B

Kept as the surviving factor - a sign slip in the difference-of-squares step - giving .

Option C

Worked the analogous identity with and , answering the question for the wrong pair of ratios.

Option D

Both errors at once: the - version with the sign of the surviving factor reversed.

Skills used

80Trigonometry • Trigonometric Identity • Degree and Radian
ModerateIdeal time: about 1.5 min

Consider the following:

1
2
3

Which of the above are not correct?

Options
Show answer & solution

Option D

1, 2 and 3

Approach

Convert radian to degrees, trap it between two standard angles, and settle each comparison from the direction in which the ratio moves across the first quadrant.

Step-by-step solution

  1. 1

    Why: One radian is nearly degrees, not close to one degree; bracketing it by standard angles makes every comparison decidable without tables.

  2. 2

    Why: Sine increases across to . So , and statement 1, which claims the reverse, is NOT correct.

  3. 3

    Why: Cosine decreases across the same range. So , and statement 2, which claims the reverse, is NOT correct.

  4. 4

    Why: Tangent increases across the range. So , and statement 3, which claims the reverse, is NOT correct.

  5. 5

    Why: The question asks which are NOT correct, so all three qualify.

Shortcut

All three statements assert that the degree version beats the radian version; since is the much larger angle, every one of them is wrong.

Common mistakes

Option A

Accepted statement 3, overlooking that the tangent also grows with the angle across the first quadrant.

Option B

Accepted statement 1, reading as the smaller of the two angles for the sine comparison.

Option C

Accepted statement 2, mixing up the direction in which the cosine moves.

Skills used