College of Admission Tests Multan

Value Questions

Solve the question of and select the option from the choices A through D/E. Check your Answer and view the explanation.

Question: 4

In triangle ABC, what is the length of AB?

(1) The length of BC is 5 and the length of AC is 12.

(2) Angle C = 90°.

  • Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not sufficient.
  • Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not sufficient.
  • BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.
  • EACH statement ALONE is sufficient.
  • Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are NOT sufficient.

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Correct Answer: C

Statement (1) alone is tempting if you are familiar with the right triangles that tend to be tested over and over on the GMAT; however, we don’t know from statement (1) that ABC is a right triangle, so we should cross off A and D.

With only statement (2), we certainly don’t have enough information to answer the question, so B can be eliminated. Together, though, we can complete the picture of a right triangle with two known sides, which means we can figure out the third side using Pythagorean Theorem, and our answer is C. (Since the squares of the two legs add up to 169, the hypotenuse is 13.)