2006 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 8

Problem

A square of area 40 is inscribed in a semicircle as shown. What is the area of the semicircle?

[asy] defaultpen(linewidth(0.8)); size(100); real r=sqrt(50), s=sqrt(10); draw(Arc(origin, r, 0, 180)); draw((r,0)--(-r,0), dashed); draw((-s,0)--(s,0)--(s,2*s)--(-s,2*s)--cycle); [/asy]

$\textbf{(A) } 20\pi\qquad \textbf{(B) } 25\pi\qquad \textbf{(C) } 30\pi\qquad \textbf{(D) } 40\pi\qquad \textbf{(E) } 50\pi$

Solution

Since the area of the square is $40$, the length of a side is $\sqrt{40}=2\sqrt{10}$. The distance between the center of the semicircle and one of the bottom vertices of the square is half the length of the side, which is $\sqrt{10}$.

Using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the radius $r$ of the semicircle, $r^2 = (2\sqrt{10})^2 + (\sqrt{10})^2 = 50$. So, the area of the semicircle is $\frac{1}{2}\cdot \pi \cdot 50 = \boxed{\textbf{(B) }25\pi}$.

See Also

2006 AMC 10B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 7
Followed by
Problem 9
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All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

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