2021 Fall AMC 10B Problems/Problem 18
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[hide]Problem
Three identical square sheets of paper each with side length are stacked on top of each other. The middle sheet is rotated clockwise
about its center and the top sheet is rotated clockwise
about its center, resulting in the
-sided polygon shown in the figure below. The area of this polygon can be expressed in the form
, where
,
, and
are positive integers, and
is not divisible by the square of any prime. What is
![[asy] defaultpen(fontsize(8)+0.8); size(150); pair O,A1,B1,C1,A2,B2,C2,A3,B3,C3,A4,B4,C4; real x=45, y=90, z=60; O=origin; A1=dir(x); A2=dir(x+y); A3=dir(x+2y); A4=dir(x+3y); B1=dir(x-z); B2=dir(x+y-z); B3=dir(x+2y-z); B4=dir(x+3y-z); C1=dir(x-2z); C2=dir(x+y-2z); C3=dir(x+2y-2z); C4=dir(x+3y-2z); draw(A1--A2--A3--A4--A1, gray+0.25+dashed); filldraw(B1--B2--B3--B4--cycle, white, gray+dashed+linewidth(0.25)); filldraw(C1--C2--C3--C4--cycle, white, gray+dashed+linewidth(0.25)); dot(O); pair P1,P2,P3,P4,Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4,R1,R2,R3,R4; P1=extension(A1,A2,B1,B2); Q1=extension(A1,A2,C3,C4); P2=extension(A2,A3,B2,B3); Q2=extension(A2,A3,C4,C1); P3=extension(A3,A4,B3,B4); Q3=extension(A3,A4,C1,C2); P4=extension(A4,A1,B4,B1); Q4=extension(A4,A1,C2,C3); R1=extension(C2,C3,B2,B3); R2=extension(C3,C4,B3,B4); R3=extension(C4,C1,B4,B1); R4=extension(C1,C2,B1,B2); draw(A1--P1--B2--R1--C3--Q1--A2); draw(A2--P2--B3--R2--C4--Q2--A3); draw(A3--P3--B4--R3--C1--Q3--A4); draw(A4--P4--B1--R4--C2--Q4--A1); [/asy]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/7/e/b/7eb8841b95d6e1c451addf20403c4e540f176116.png)
Solution 1 (15-75-90 triangles)
![[asy] defaultpen(fontsize(8)+0.8); size(150); pair O,A1,B1,C1,A2,B2,C2,A3,B3,C3,A4,B4,C4; real x=45, y=90, z=60; O=origin; A1=dir(x); A2=dir(x+y); A3=dir(x+2y); A4=dir(x+3y); B1=dir(x-z); B2=dir(x+y-z); B3=dir(x+2y-z); B4=dir(x+3y-z); C1=dir(x-2z); C2=dir(x+y-2z); C3=dir(x+2y-2z); C4=dir(x+3y-2z); draw(A1--A2--A3--A4--A1, gray+0.25+dashed); filldraw(B1--B2--B3--B4--cycle, white, gray+dashed+linewidth(0.25)); filldraw(C1--C2--C3--C4--cycle, white, gray+dashed+linewidth(0.25)); filldraw(O--C3--B2--cycle, white, black+linewidth(0.5)); dot(O); label("$O$",O,W); label("$B$",C3,N); label("$C$",B2,N); label("$A$",(0,0.8),S); pair P1,P2,P3,P4,Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4,R1,R2,R3,R4; P1=extension(A1,A2,B1,B2); Q1=extension(A1,A2,C3,C4); P2=extension(A2,A3,B2,B3); Q2=extension(A2,A3,C4,C1); P3=extension(A3,A4,B3,B4); Q3=extension(A3,A4,C1,C2); P4=extension(A4,A1,B4,B1); Q4=extension(A4,A1,C2,C3); R1=extension(C2,C3,B2,B3); R2=extension(C3,C4,B3,B4); R3=extension(C4,C1,B4,B1); R4=extension(C1,C2,B1,B2); draw(A1--P1--B2--R1--C3--Q1--A2); draw(A2--P2--B3--R2--C4--Q2--A3); draw(A3--P3--B4--R3--C1--Q3--A4); draw(A4--P4--B1--R4--C2--Q4--A1); [/asy]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/1/e/2/1e28d3773e9fcc7541cb5c53586dfb20929c076d.png)
Break the -gon as shown so that there are
copies of quadrilateral
. We can find the area of this quadrilateral by finding the area of triangle
and subtracting the area of triangle
.
The angle from to one of the vertices of the original square is
, and this point rotates
, so the angle that
makes with the horizontal is
.
Let be the intersection of
with
. Since
and
are both isosceles,
forms a right angle with
. Furthermore,
.
![[asy] import olympiad; pair O,C,D; D=(0,4); O=(0,0); C=(1.1,4); draw(O--C--D--cycle); label("$D$",D,N); label("$C$",C,N); label("$O$",O,S); path angle = anglemark(C, O, D); draw(rightanglemark(O, D, C)); [/asy]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/0/8/0/080091f59b2fe1e330417ffefde33d3af9bc542e.png)
Note that is equal to
because it is half the diagonal of the square with side length
. We can now split up the
into
and
triangles to find the height and length of the triangle:
![[asy] import olympiad; pair O,C,D,E; D=(0,4); O=(0,0); C=(1.1,4); E=(0,2.1); draw(O--C--D--cycle); label("$D$",D,N); label("$C$",C,N); label("$O$",O,S); label("$3\sqrt{2}$",(1.3,2),E); path angle = anglemark(C, O, D); draw(rightanglemark(O, D, C)); draw(C--E); label("$E$",E,W); label("$x$",(0.5,4),N); label("$x\sqrt{3}$",(-0.1,3.2),W); label("$2x$",(-0.1,1),W); [/asy]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/1/3/9/13966fe2b77cb29b8c1696c395efd6f28df9d52e.png)
Now we have use Pythagorean:
Now note that must be in the form of
. Therefore,
. We can guess that
. Sure enough,
, so
. Then the height of the triangle is
.
The area of triangle is equal to the length times the height of triangle
since this triangle has half the area of the full triangle. Therefore the area of triangle
.
Now we look at triangle .
because
is the diagonal of a square, and
is
as we saw earlier. Therefore,
. Because both these angles are
,
.
We can now split triangle into two congruent
triangles, and we know the base of each since
.
The height of these triangles is
Solution in Progress
~KingRavi
Solution 2
First note the useful fact that if is the circumradius of a dodecagon (
-gon) the area of the figure is
If we connect the vertices of the
squares we get a dodecagon. The radius of circumcircle of the dodecagon is simply half the diagonal of the square, which is
Thus the area of the dodecagon is
But, the problem asked for the area of the combined figure which was made from the rotated squares. This area is the area of the dodecagon, which was found, subtracting the
isosceles triangles, which are formed when connecting the vertices of the squares to created the dodecagon. To find this area, we need to know the base of the isosceles triangle, call this
Then, we can use the Law of Cosines on the triangle that is formed from the two vertices of the square and the center of the square. After computing, we get that
Realize that the
isosceles are congruent with an angle measure of
this means that we can create
congruent equilateral triangles with side length of
The area of the equilateral triangle is
Thus, the area of all the twelve small equilateral traingles are
. Thus, the requested area is
Thus,
so the answer is
~NH14
Solution 3 (30-60-90 Triangles)
To make things simpler, let's take only the original sheet and the 30 degree rotated sheet. Then the diagram is this;
The area of this diagram is the original square plus the area of the four triangles that 'jut' out of the square. Because the square is rotated , each triangle is a 30-60-90 triangle. Similarly, the triangles that are bounded on the inside of the original square outside of the rotated square are also congruent 30-60-90 triangles. Noting this, we can do some labelling:
Since the side lengths of the squares must be the same, and they are both 6, we have a system of equations;
We solve this to get and
.
The area of each triangle is by plugging in
.
The rotated 60 degree square is the same thing as rotating it 30 degrees counterclockwise, so it's triangles that jut out of the square will be congruent to the triangles we have found, and therefore they will have the same area.
Unfortunately, when drawing all three squares, we see the two triangles overlap; take the very top for example.
The area of this shape is twice the area of each of the triangles that we have already found minus the area of the small triangle that is overlapped by the two by PIE. Now we only need to find the area of .
and by symmetry
is isosceles, so it is a 30-30-120 triangle. If we draw a perpendicular, we split it into two 30-60-90 triangles;
By symmetry, the distance from A to the edge of the square is equal to the distance from D to the edge of the square is equal to . AC = BD =
, and the side length of the square is 6, so we use PIE to obtain
To find the height of
, we see that
. Then by 30-60-90 triangles,
. Finally, the area of
.
Putting it all together, the area of the entire diagram is the area of the square plus four of these triangle-triangle intersections. The area of these intersections by PIE is .
Therefore the total area is
.
Thus .
~KingRavi
Solution 4
As shown in Image:2021_AMC_12B_(Nov)_Problem_15,_sol.png, all 12 vertices of three squares form a regular dodecagon (12-gon).
Denote by the center of this dodecagon.
Hence, .
Because the length of a side of a square is 6, .
Hence, .
We notice that .
Hence,
.
Therefore, the area of the region that three squares cover is
Therefore, the answer is .
~Steven Chen (www.professorchenedu.com)
~stjwyl (adjusted for readability aka minor edits)
Note: If you have square brakets around a specified polygon (i.e. [ABCD]), it means the writer is referring to the area of that polygon.
Solution 5
First, we can separate the shape into 12 congruent kites. The area of the figure can be determined by finding the area of one kite and multiplying it by 12. In order to to get the area of one kite, we need to find its diagonals, shown in blue.
We notice that angle FCE is . Also, we know that CD is half of AB, so it has a length of 3. Now, we can find the lengths of FC and FD using the 30-60-90 triangle. We find that FC is
and FD is
. Since FC is congruent to CE, CE is also
. Using this information, we can conclude that ED is
.
Now, we can find the shorter diagonal by using the Pythagorean theorem:
We can find the longer diagonal of the kite by looking at one of the square sheets of paper. We know that the side of the square has a length of 6, so the diagonal of the square must be . The longer diagonal of the kite is half of this length, so it has a length of
.
The area of the entire figure is
Now we can use algebra to make our answer look a little nicer.
The area of the entire region is , or
.
Therefore, .
~JavaWhiz12
Solution 6
Let be the center of the polygon,
be the bottom right corner of the first square,
be the next vertex to the left of
, and
be the midpoint between
and
, where
is the bottom left corner of the first square. Note that because there are three
squares separated by
, each side of the 24-sided polygon is equal in length, meaning to calculate the area of the whole polygon, we find the area of
and multiply by 24.
To find , we already know the height
is the sidelength of the square over
, or
, so we just need the length of the base
. Notice that
is a
triangle since
, so
. Then
, so
Then the whole area of the polygon is . The desired solution is then
, so the answer is
.
~Tacozxyt
Video Solution 1 by Power of Logic (math2718281828459)
~math2718281828459
Video Solution 2 by Interstigation (with some trigonometry)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GgGXsB3yjU
~Interstigation
Video Solution 3 by WhyMath
~savannahsolver
See Also
2021 Fall AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 17 |
Followed by Problem 19 | |
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 AMC 10 Problems and Solutions |
The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.