2023 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 19

Problem

The line segment formed by $A(1, 2)$ and $B(3, 3)$ is rotated to the line segment formed by $A'(3, 1)$ and $B'(4, 3)$ about the point $P(r, s)$ . What is $|r-s|$ ?

$\textbf{(A) } \frac{1}{4} \qquad \textbf{(B) } \frac{1}{2} \qquad \textbf{(C) } \frac{3}{4} \qquad \textbf{(D) } \frac{2}{3} \qquad \textbf{(E) } 1$

Solution 1

Due to rotations preserving an equal distance, we can bash the answer with the distance formula. $D(A, P) = D(A', P)$ , and $D(B, P) = D(B',P)$ . Thus we will square our equations to yield: $(1-r)^2+(2-s)^2=(3-r)^2+(1-s)^2$ , and $(3-r)^2+(3-s)^2=(4-r)^2+(3-s)^2$ . Canceling $(3-s)^2$ from the second equation makes it clear that $r$ equals $3.5$ .

Substituting will yield

$\begin{align*}(2.5)^2+(2-s)^2 &= (-0.5)^2+(1-s)^2 \\ 6.25+4-4s+s^2 &= 0.25+1-2s+s^2 \\ 2s &= 9 \\ s &=4.5 \\ \end{align*}$ .

Now $|r-s| = |3.5-4.5| = \boxed{\textbf{(E) } 1}$ .

-Antifreeze5420

Solution 2

Due to rotations preserving distance, we have that $BP = B^\prime P$ , as well as $AP = A^\prime P$ . From here, we can see that P must be on the perpendicular bisector of $\overline{BB^\prime}$ due to the property of perpendicular bisectors keeping the distance to two points constant.

From here, we proceed to find the perpendicular bisector of $\overline{BB^\prime}$ . We can see that this is just a horizontal line segment with midpoint at $(3.5, 3)$ . This means that the equation of the perpendicular bisector is $x = 3.5$ .

Similarly, we find the perpendicular bisector of $\overline{AA^\prime}$ . We find the slope to be $\frac{1-2}{3-1} = -\frac12$ , so our new slope will be $2$ . The midpoint of $A$ and $A^\prime$ is $(2, \frac32)$ , which we can use with our slope to get another equation of $y = 2x - \frac52$ .

Now, point P has to lie on both of these perpendicular bisectors, meaning that it has to satisfy both equations. Plugging in the value of $x$ we found earlier, we find that $y=4.5$ . This means that $|r - s| = |3.5 - 4.5| = \boxed{\textbf{(E) } 1}$ .

-DEVSAXENA

Solution 3 (Coordinate Geometry)

To find the center of rotation, we find the intersection point of the perpendicular bisectors of $\overline{AA^\prime}$ and $\overline{BB^\prime}$ .

We can find that the equation of the line $\overline{AA^\prime}$ is $y = -\frac{1}{2}x + \frac{5}{2}$ , and that the equation of the line $\overline{BB^\prime}$ is $y = 3$ .

When we solve for the perpendicular bisector of $y = -\frac{1}{2}x + \frac{5}{2}$ , we determine that it has a slope of 2, and it runs through $(2, 1.5)$ . Plugging in $1.5 = 2(2)-n$ , we get than $n = \frac{5}{2}$ . Therefore our perpendicular bisector is $y=2x-\frac{5}{2}$ . Next, we solve for the perpendicular of $y = 3$ . We know that it has an undefined slope, and it runs through $(3.5, 3)$ . We can determine that our second perpendicular bisector is $x = 3.5$ .

Setting the equations equal to each other, we get $2x-\frac{5}{2} = 3.5$ . Solving for x, we get that $x = \frac{9}{2}$ . Therefore, $|r - s| = |3.5 - 4.5| = \boxed{\textbf{(E) } 1}$ .

$[asy] pair A=(1,2); pair B=(3,3); pair A1=(3,1); pair B1=(4,3); dot("A",A,NW); dot("B",B,S); dot("A'",A1,S); dot("B'",B1,E); draw(A--A1); draw(B--B1); draw((3.5,0)--(3.5,6),BeginArrow(5),EndArrow(5)); draw((1,-0.5)--(4,5.5),BeginArrow(5),EndArrow(5)); pair P=(3.5,4.5); dot("P",P,NW); [/asy]$

~aydenlee & wuwang2002

Solution 4

We use the complex numbers approach to solve this problem. Denote by $\theta$ the angle that $AB$ rotates about $P$ in the counterclockwise direction.

Thus, $A' - P = e^{i \theta} \left( A - P \right)$ and $B' - P = e^{i \theta} \left( B - P \right)$ .

Taking ratio of these two equations, we get $\frac{A' - P}{A - P} = \frac{B' - P}{B - P} .$

By solving this equation, we get $P = \frac{7}{2} + i \frac{9}{2}$ . Therefore, $|s-t| = \left| \frac{7}{2} - \frac{9}{2} \right| = \boxed{\textbf{(E) 1}}$ .

~Steven Chen (Professor Chen Education Palace, www.professorchenedu.com)

Video Solution by Power Solve (easy to understand!)

https://youtu.be/aYHwBpdWkAk

Video Solution by CosineMethod [🔥Fast and Easy🔥]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIzCR4x4x-M

Video Solution 1 by OmegaLearn

https://youtu.be/88F18qth0xI

Video Solution

https://youtu.be/va3ZCFeKfzg

~Steven Chen (Professor Chen Education Palace, www.professorchenedu.com)

Video Solution by TheBeautyofMath

https://youtu.be/Q_4uMxMbQlI

~IceMatrix

2023 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
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
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