What math should you know before you start

your undergraduate studies at BME

Review for prospective students

Geometry

Perimeters and areas of simple two-dimensional shapes

Shape Perimeter Area

a  ha a  b  sin 
Triangle abc 
2 2
Equilateral/regular a2  3
3a
triangle 4

Square 4a a2

Rectangle 2  a  b a b

Parallelogram 2  a  b a  ha  a  b  sin 

Rhombus 4a a  h  a 2  sin   e  f

ac
Trapezoid a bcd h
2

Circle 2  r  r 2 

r 2 
Circle sector 2  r  r 
2
Line segments associated with triangles
You should also know the special line segments associated with triangles:

Angle bisector A line segment that bisects any angle of the triangle.

It passes through a vertex and is perpendicular to the

Altitude opposite side. The length of the altitude is the height of
the triangle.
Connects a vertex and the midpoint of the opposite
Median
side.
 Midsegment Connects the midpoints of two sides.

It passes through the midpoint of a side and is perpen-

Perpendicular bisector dicular to it. The intersection of the three perpendicular
bisectors is the center of the triangle’s circumcircle.

Surfaces and volumes of solids

Solid Surface Volume

4 3
Sphere 4r 2 r
3
1
Pyramid A h
3

Circular cylinder 2  r 2  2r  h r 2  h

1 2
Circular cone r  h
3

Plane vectors
You should know the operations with vectors including addition, subtraction, absolute
value and scalar product:

Absolute value a  xa2  ya2

Addition a  b   xa  xb , ya  yb 

a  b  a  b  cos    xa , ya    xb , yb   xa  xb  ya  yb
Scalar product
Consequence: a is perpendicular to b if and only if ab=0.

Coordinate geometry
You should know the following ( P1   x1 , y1  , P2   x2 , y2  ):

d  PP
1 2   x1  x2    y1  y2 
2 2
Distance between points

Coordinates of the point that divides a  x1   x2  y   y2

x , y 1
line segment in a given λ:μ ratio  
x1  x2 y y
Midpoint of a segment x , y 1 2
2 2
 Slope of a line passing through points (x1, y2  y1
m
y1) and (x2, y2) x2  x1
Equation of a line passing through (x0, y0)
y  y0  a   x  x0 
with given slope a
Equation of a circle with center (u, v) and
 x  u   y  v  r2
2 2

radius r

Sample problems:

The height of a regular triangle is 3 units. What is its area?

What is the cosine of the angle between vectors a(4, 2) and b(2, 2) ?

What is the equation of the line that passes through the center of the circle giv-
en by x2  6 x  y 2  8 y  50 and is perpendicular to the line given by x  3 y  5 ?