2002 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 11

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Problem

A sequence of squares is made of identical square tiles. The edge of each square is one tile length longer than the edge of the previous square. The first three squares are shown. How many more tiles does the seventh square require than the sixth?

[asy] path p=origin--(1,0)--(1,1)--(0,1)--cycle; draw(p); draw(shift(3,0)*p); draw(shift(3,1)*p); draw(shift(4,0)*p); draw(shift(4,1)*p); draw(shift(7,0)*p); draw(shift(7,1)*p); draw(shift(7,2)*p); draw(shift(8,0)*p); draw(shift(8,1)*p); draw(shift(8,2)*p); draw(shift(9,0)*p); draw(shift(9,1)*p); draw(shift(9,2)*p);[/asy]

$\text{(A)}\ 11 \qquad \text{(B)}\ 12 \qquad \text{(C)}\ 13 \qquad \text{(D)}\ 14 \qquad \text{(E)}\ 15$

Solution

Solution 1

The first square has a sidelength of $1$, the second square $2$, and so on. The seventh square has $7$ and is made of $7^2=49$ unit tiles. The sixth square has $6$ and is made of $6^2=36$ unit tiles. The seventh square has $49-36=\boxed{\text{(C)}\ 13}$ more tiles than the sixth square.

Solution 2

The edge of each square is one tile length longer than the edge of the previous square, which means that each square has $2*edge length - 1$ more tiles than the previous square. Then the seventh square has $2*7-1=13$ more tiles than the sixth square, which is $\boxed{\text{(C)}\ 13}$.

See Also

2002 AMC 8 (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 10
Followed by
Problem 12
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

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