The Official SAT Question of the Day™

Read the following SAT test question, then click on a button to select your answer.


Note: Figure not drawn to scale.




The circle shown above has center O and a radius of length 5. If the area of the shaded region is 20, what is the value of x?

A. 18
B. 36
C. 45
D. 54
E. 72

Answer is A

Here's Why:

In order to find the value of x, you should first determine the measure of the angle that is located at point O in the right triangle. To determine this angle, you must calculate what fraction of the circle’s area is unshaded. The radius r of the circle is 5 and its area is
r^2, or 25
. The area of the shaded region is 20
, so the area of the unshaded region must be 5
. Therefore, the fraction of the circle’s area that is unshaded is

, or
. A circle contains a total of 360 degrees of arc, which means that
of 360 degrees, or 72 degrees, is the measure of the angle at point O in the unshaded region. Since you now know that two of the three angles in the triangle measure 72 degrees and 90 degrees and that the sum of the measures of the three angles is always 180 degrees, the third angle must measure 18 degrees. Therefore, x = 18.


Difficulty: Hard
Question Type: Standard Multiple Choice

(Mathematics)