1962 AHSME Problems/Problem 6

Revision as of 12:19, 12 February 2018 by Tauros (talk | contribs) (Solution)

Problem

A square and an equilateral triangle have equal perimeters. The area of the triangle is $9 \sqrt{3}$ square inches. Expressed in inches the diagonal of the square is:

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{9}{2}\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 2\sqrt{5}\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 4\sqrt{2}\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ \frac{9\sqrt{2}}{2}\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ \text{none of these}$

Solution

To solve for the perimeter of the triangle we plug in the formula for the area of an equilateral triangle which is (x^2*$\sqrt{3}$)/4. This has to be equal to $9 \sqrt{3}$ so solving for x brings the answer to a side length to 6. Knowing this gives us a perimeter of 18 so each side length of the square is 4.5. Now we solve for the diagonal getting the answer of $\boxed{D}$ ${9\sqrt{2}}/{2}$.

See Also

1962 AHSC (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 5
Followed by
Problem 7
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 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
All AHSME Problems and Solutions

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions. AMC logo.png