RICAS Mathematics Reasoning 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A garden is shaped like a right triangle with legs of 9 m and 12 m. What is the length of the hypotenuse?
- 13 m
- 15 m (Correct answer)
- 16 m
- 18 m
Correct answer: 15 m
Using the Pythagorean theorem: √(9² + 12²) = √(81 + 144) = √225 = 15 m.
Question 2: Which of the following is a rational number?
- √5
- π
- √16 (Correct answer)
- √3
Correct answer: √16
√16 = 4, which is a whole number and therefore rational.
Question 3: The inequality 3x − 4 > 11 is satisfied by which value of x?
- x = 3
- x = 4
- x = 5
- x = 6 (Correct answer)
Correct answer: x = 6
3x > 15 → x > 5; only x = 6 satisfies this.
Question 4: A spinner has 8 equal sections numbered 1–8. What is the probability of spinning a prime number?
- 1/4
- 3/8
- 1/2 (Correct answer)
- 5/8
Correct answer: 1/2
Primes from 1–8 are 2, 3, 5, 7 — four primes — so probability = 4/8 = 1/2.
Question 5: What is 15% of 240?
- 24
- 30
- 36 (Correct answer)
- 42
Correct answer: 36
15% × 240 = 0.15 × 240 = 36.
Question 6: A cylinder has a radius of 5 cm and a height of 10 cm. What is its volume? (Use π ≈ 3.14)
- 157 cm³
- 785 cm³ (Correct answer)
- 314 cm³
- 502 cm³
Correct answer: 785 cm³
V = πr²h = 3.14 × 25 × 10 = 785 cm³.
Question 7: Which expression is equivalent to 2(3x + 4) − 5x?
- x + 4
- x + 8 (Correct answer)
- 11x + 8
- 6x + 4
Correct answer: x + 8
2(3x + 4) − 5x = 6x + 8 − 5x = x + 8.
RICAS Mathematics Reasoning 3
A garden is shaped like a right triangle with legs of 9 m and 12 m.
What is the length of the hypotenuse?