2005 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 23

Problem

Let $AB$ be a diameter of a circle and let $C$ be a point on $AB$ with $2\cdot AC=BC$ . Let $D$ and $E$ be points on the circle such that $DC \perp AB$ and $DE$ is a second diameter. What is the ratio of the area of $\triangle DCE$ to the area of $\triangle ABD$ ?

$\mathrm{(A) \ } \frac{1}{6}\qquad \mathrm{(B) \ } \frac{1}{4}\qquad \mathrm{(C) \ } \frac{1}{3}\qquad \mathrm{(D) \ } \frac{1}{2}\qquad \mathrm{(E) \ } \frac{2}{3}$ . The area of

Solution

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/8034/circlenc1.png

$AC$ is $\frac{1}{3}$ of diameter and $CO$ is $\frac{1}{2}$ - $\frac{1}{3}$ = $\frac{1}{6}$ .

$OD$ is the radius of the circle, so using the Pythagorean theorem height $CD$ of $\triangle AOC$ is $\sqrt{(\frac{1}{2})^2-(\frac{1}{6})^2$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg) = $\frac{\sqrt{2}}{3}$ . This is also the height of the $\triangle ABD$ .

Area of the $\triangle DCO$ is $\frac{1}{2}\cdot\frac{1}{6}\cdot\frac{\sqrt{2}}{3}$ = $\frac{\sqrt{2}}{36}$ .

The height of $\triangle DCE$ can be found using the area of $\triangle DCO$ and $DO$ as base.

Hence the height of $\triangle DCE$ is $\frac{\frac{\sqrt{2}}{36}}{\frac{1}{2}\cdot\frac{1}{2}}$ = $\frac{\sqrt{2}}{9}$ .

The diameter is the base for both the triangles $\triangle DCE$ and $\triangle ABD$ .

Hence, the ratio of the area of $\triangle DCE$ to the area of $\triangle ABD$ is $\frac{\frac{\sqrt{2}}{9}}{\frac{\sqrt{2}}{3}}$ = $\frac{1}{3} \Rightarrow C$

2005 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 22	Followed by Problem 24
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2005 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 23

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