Art of Problem Solving
AoPS Online
Math texts, online classes, and more
for students in grades 5-12.
Visit AoPS Online ‚
Books for Grades 5-12 Online Courses
Beast Academy
Engaging math books and online learning
for students ages 6-13.
Visit Beast Academy ‚
Books for Ages 6-13 Beast Academy Online
AoPS Academy
Small live classes for advanced math
and language arts learners in grades 2-12.
Visit AoPS Academy ‚
Find a Physical Campus Visit the Virtual Campus

2004 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 14

Revision as of 21:01, 3 February 2013 by Heliootrope (talk | contribs) (added solution 2)

Problem

In $\triangle ABC$, $AB=13$, $AC=5$, and $BC=12$. Points $M$ and $N$ lie on $AC$ and $BC$, respectively, with $CM=CN=4$. Points $J$ and $K$ are on $AB$ so that $MJ$ and $NK$ are perpendicular to $AB$. What is the area of pentagon $CMJKN$?

[asy] unitsize(0.5cm); defaultpen(0.8); pair C=(0,0), A=(0,5), B=(12,0), M=(0,4), N=(4,0); pair J=intersectionpoint(A--B, M--(M+rotate(90)*(B-A)) ); pair K=intersectionpoint(A--B, N--(N+rotate(90)*(B-A)) ); draw( A--B--C--cycle ); draw( M--J ); draw( N--K ); label("$A$",A,NW); label("$B$",B,SE); label("$C$",C,SW); label("$M$",M,SW); label("$N$",N,S); label("$J$",J,NE); label("$K$",K,NE); [/asy]

$\mathrm{(A)}\ 15 \qquad \mathrm{(B)}\ \frac{81}{5} \qquad \mathrm{(C)}\ \frac{205}{12} \qquad \mathrm{(D)}\ \frac{240}{13} \qquad \mathrm{(E)}\ 20$

Solution

Solution 1

The triangle $ABC$ is clearly a right triangle, its area is $\frac{5\cdot 12}2 = 30$. If we knew the areas of triangles $AMJ$ and $BNK$, we could subtract them to get the area of the pentagon.

Draw the height $CL$ from $C$ onto $AB$. As $AB=13$ and the area is $30$, we get $CL=\frac{60}{13}$. The situation is shown in the picture below:

[asy] unitsize(0.5cm); defaultpen(0.8); pair C=(0,0), A=(0,5), B=(12,0), M=(0,4), N=(4,0); pair J=intersectionpoint(A--B, M--(M+rotate(90)*(B-A)) ); pair K=intersectionpoint(A--B, N--(N+rotate(90)*(B-A)) ); pair L=intersectionpoint(A--B, C--(C+rotate(90)*(B-A)) ); draw( A--B--C--cycle ); draw( M--J ); draw( N--K ); draw( C--L, dashed ); label("$A$",A,NW); label("$B$",B,SE); label("$C$",C,SW); label("$M$",M,SW); label("$N$",N,S); label("$J$",J,NE); label("$K$",K,NE); label("$L$",L,NE); [/asy]

Now note that the triangles $ABC$, $AMJ$, $ACL$, $CBL$ and $NBK$ all have the same angles and therefore they are similar. We already know some of their sides, and we will use this information to compute their areas. Note that if two polygons are similar with ratio $k$, their areas have ratio $k^2$. We will use this fact repeatedly. Below we will use $[XYZ]$ to denote the area of the triangle $XYZ$.

We have $\frac{CL}{BC} = \frac{60/13}{12} = \frac 5{13}$, hence $[ACL] = \frac{ 25[ABC] }{169} = \frac{750}{169}$.

Also, $\frac{CL}{AC} = \frac{60/13}5 = \frac{12}{13}$, hence $[CBL] = \frac{ 144[ABC] }{169} = \frac{4320}{169}$.

Now for the smaller triangles:

We know that $\frac{AM}{AC}=\frac 15$, hence $[AMJ] = \frac{[ACL]}{25} = \frac{30}{169}$.

Similarly, $\frac{BN}{BC}=\frac 8{12} = \frac 23$, hence $[NBK] = \frac{4[CBL]}9 = \frac{1920}{169}$.

Finally, the area of the pentagon is $30 - \frac{30}{169} - \frac{1920}{169} = \boxed{\frac{240}{13}}$.

Solution 2

Split the pentagon along a different diagonal as follows:

[asy] unitsize(0.5cm); defaultpen(0.8); pair C=(0,0), A=(0,5), B=(12,0), M=(0,4), N=(4,0); pair J=intersectionpoint(A--B, M--(M+rotate(90)*(B-A)) ); pair K=intersectionpoint(A--B, N--(N+rotate(90)*(B-A)) ); draw( A--B--C--cycle ); draw( M--J ); draw( N--K ); draw( M--N, dashed ); label("$A$",A,NW); label("$B$",B,SE); label("$C$",C,SW); label("$M$",M,SW); label("$N$",N,S); label("$J$",J,NE); label("$K$",K,NE); label("$L$",L,NE); [/asy]

The area of the pentagon is then the sum of the areas of the resulting right triangle and trapezoid. As before, triangles $ABC$, $AMJ$, and $NBK$ are all similar.

Since $BN=12-4=8$, $NK=\frac{5}{13}(8)=\frac{40}{13}$ and $BK=\frac{12}{13}(8)=\frac{96}{13}$. Since $AM=5-4=1$, $JM=\frac{12}{13}$ and $AJ=\frac{5}{13}$.

The trapezoid's height is therefore $13-\frac{5}{13}-\frac{96}{13}=\frac{68}{13}$, and its area is $\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{68}{13}\right)\left(\frac{12}{13}+\frac{40}{13}\right)=\frac{34}{13}(4)=\frac{136}{13}$.

Triangle $MCN$ has area $\frac{1}{2}(4)(4)=8$, and the total area is $\frac{104+136}{13}=\boxed{\frac{240}{13}}$.

See Also

2004 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by
Problem 13 		Followed by
Problem 15
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 12 Problems and Solutions
Retrieved from "https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php?title=2004_AMC_12B_Problems/Problem_14&oldid=50680"