- #1
Saracen Rue
- 150
- 10
- TL;DR Summary
- Is there an easier way to determine what percentage of this square is bound by the shaded area of 4 line segments
Consider the following scenario:
Given that points ##M## and ##N## are the midpoints of their respective line segments, what would be the fastest way to determine what percentage of the squares total area is shaded purple?
I managed to determine that the purple shaded area is ##5\text{%}## as per my working below:
The only real problem I had with this is that it took me a genuinely long time to figure out. After I drew it up by hand, I suspected that line segment ##EG## was roughly equal to ##\frac{a}{3}## from visual inspection alone, and I did use a ruler to confirm this. However, it took me quite a while to prove it was mathematically.
I feel as though there must be a simpler way to go about solving the question using just geometry/trigonometry (I do realise that it'd probably be easy enough to solve if you put this on a Cartesian Plane with ##A## at the origin, but I wanted to try avoiding that method if possible), and if so, can anyone point me in the right direction?
Given that points ##M## and ##N## are the midpoints of their respective line segments, what would be the fastest way to determine what percentage of the squares total area is shaded purple?
I managed to determine that the purple shaded area is ##5\text{%}## as per my working below:
The only real problem I had with this is that it took me a genuinely long time to figure out. After I drew it up by hand, I suspected that line segment ##EG## was roughly equal to ##\frac{a}{3}## from visual inspection alone, and I did use a ruler to confirm this. However, it took me quite a while to prove it was mathematically.
I feel as though there must be a simpler way to go about solving the question using just geometry/trigonometry (I do realise that it'd probably be easy enough to solve if you put this on a Cartesian Plane with ##A## at the origin, but I wanted to try avoiding that method if possible), and if so, can anyone point me in the right direction?