2011 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 19

Problem

How many rectangles are in this figure?

[asy] pair A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L; A=(0,0); B=(20,0); C=(20,20); D=(0,20); draw(A--B--C--D--cycle); E=(-10,-5); F=(13,-5); G=(13,5); H=(-10,5); draw(E--F--G--H--cycle); I=(10,-20); J=(18,-20); K=(18,13); L=(10,13); draw(I--J--K--L--cycle);[/asy]

$\textbf{(A)}\ 8\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 9\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 10\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 11\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 12$

Solution

The figure can be divided into $7$ sections. The number of rectangles with just one section is $3.$ The number of rectangles with two sections is $5.$ There are none with only three sections. The number of rectangles with four sections is $3.$

$3+5+3=\boxed{\textbf{(D)}\ 11}$

Count by Reduction

We can remove the 3 big blocks of rectangles one by one. 7 (left) + 3 (bottom) + 1 = 11 are removed in total.

~aliciawu

Video Solution 1 by SpreadTheMathLove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYn6tNxrWBU

See Also

2011 AMC 8 (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 18
Followed by
Problem 20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
All AJHSME/AMC 8 Problems and Solutions

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions. AMC logo.png