2005 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 9

Problem

In quadrilateral $ABCD$ , sides $\overline{AB}$ and $\overline{BC}$ both have length 10, sides $\overline{CD}$ and $\overline{DA}$ both have length 17, and the measure of angle $ADC$ is $60^\circ$ . What is the length of diagonal $\overline{AC}$ ?

$[asy]draw((0,0)--(17,0)); draw(rotate(301, (17,0))*(0,0)--(17,0)); picture p; draw(p, (0,0)--(0,10)); draw(p, rotate(115, (0,10))*(0,0)--(0,10)); add(rotate(3)*p); draw((0,0)--(8.25,14.5), linetype("8 8")); label("$A$", (8.25, 14.5), N); label("$B$", (-0.25, 10), W); label("$C$", (0,0), SW); label("$D$", (17, 0), E);[/asy]$

$\textbf{(A)}\ 13.5\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 14\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 15.5\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 17\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 18.5$

Solutions

Solution 1

Because $\overline{AD} = \overline{CD}$ , $\triangle ADC$ is an isosceles triangle with $\angle DAC = \angle DCA$ . Angles in a triangle add up to $180^\circ$ , and since $\angle ADC=60^\circ$ , the other two angles are also $60^\circ$ , and $\triangle ADC$ is an equilateral triangle. Therefore $\overline{AC}=\overline{DA}=\boxed{\textbf{(D)}\ 17}$ .

Solution 2

We can divide $\overline{CD}$ in half and connect this point to A, dividing $\triangle ADC$ in half. This means the base will be $\frac{17}{2}$ and the hypotenuse will be 17. By using the Pythagorean's Theorem, we see that if the base and height are shared, the hypotenuse should be the same. This tells us that the length of $\overline{AD} = \boxed{(D) 17}$ .

~Champion1234

2005 AMC 8 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 8	Followed by Problem 10
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2005 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 9

Contents

Problem

Solutions

Solution 1

Solution 2

See Also