TheNightKing wrote:
Hi Andrew, Thanks for your response.
But I am confused.
but a 15 x 15 area indicates a square already, one with an area of 225. How? Then the perimeter becomes 2(15+15)=60. And that is not right.
Also I do understand that option D and E are same as per my logic and that is not the case but then what does 15*15 represent and what will be the other 2 sides.
From the point of view of the answer to the question, I have no issues since I know the logic of square having the maximum area but I guess I just confused myself.
Please help!
TheNightKing - Per the part in blue, yes, that is
not right. A perimeter of 60 would be problematic indeed, since Mike has only 40m of netting. To help with the second part, a 15 x 15 rectangle indicates a
length of 15 and a
width of 15, and since the length and width will not change from one parallel side of a rectangle to the other, there is no "extra" 5 and 5 to consider. I drew out a couple figures on Google Docs, which I am uploading here as a PDF, to illustrate what I mean. The first figure could correctly be called a 15 x 15, the second a 15 x 5. The third is a sketch, really, in which two segments that are each 15m in length are joined in some manner that is different from the second figure. But this begs the question, how
could two 5m segments be joined to the figure in any meaningful way to produce a four-sided polygon that could be called a
rectangle? That is the point I was hoping to make.
I like to say that as long as you get the correct answer (without cheating), how you got there does not matter--the GMAT™ does not award bonus points for elegant solutions. On the other hand, when you want to guide others, I think your reasoning has to be airtight, or else your explanations can be misleading to those who might take them at face value.
Thanks for the response. I hope our dialogue will help others with their studies. I would be happy to extend it if my point is still unclear.
- Andrew
Hi Andrew, You made it absolutely clear. No further questions my lord, I rest my case
Keeping that aside, I was considering 15*15 as two parallel sides and was concluding figure 2 as resultant rectangle. But since 15*15 represents length*breadth then it is crystal clear what is happening here.
Thank you for taking your time out and explaining this at length.