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Lines, angles, and triangles — SAT practice questions

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What this topic is

Lines, angles, and triangles questions rely on a handful of facts: vertical angles are equal, angles on a straight line add to one hundred eighty degrees, and so do the interior angles of any triangle.

When a transversal crosses parallel lines, corresponding angles and alternate interior angles are equal. Many items write angle measures as expressions in x, which turns the geometry into a linear equation. Similar triangles have equal corresponding angles and proportional corresponding sides, so matching vertices in the stated order is essential; pairing the wrong sides gives a wrong ratio.

Measurements should come from the given information, since figures are not always drawn to scale.

Sample questions

Pick an answer to see whether it is right — nothing is saved, and nothing needs an account.

Question 1Easier

Two lines intersect, forming two pairs of vertical angles. One angle measures (3x+15)∘, and its vertical angle measures 75∘. What is the value of x?

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Answer: A — 20

Vertical angles are equal, so 3x+15=75, which gives 3x=60 and x=20.

Question 2Easier

The three interior angles of a triangle measure 2x∘, 3x∘, and 4x∘. What is the measure, in degrees, of the largest angle?

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Answer: D — 80

The angles sum to 180: 2x+3x+4x=180, so 9x=180 and x=20. The largest angle is 4(20)=80.

Question 3Easier

Triangle PQR is similar to triangle STU, with P corresponding to S, Q corresponding to T, and R corresponding to U. If PQ=8, QR=14, and ST=10, what is the length of TU?

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Answer: C — 17.5

Similar triangles have proportional corresponding sides: STPQ=TUQR, so 108=TU14, giving TU=14⋅54=17.5. The choice 11.2 uses the inverted scale 810. The choice 16 adds the side-length difference 10−8 to QR. The choice 22 adds PQ and QR instead of using the similarity ratio.

Every question is picked for where you are right now, wrong answers come back until they stick, and it all works offline.

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