2015 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 19

Problem

In $\triangle{ABC}$ , $\angle{C} = 90^{\circ}$ and $AB = 12$ . Squares $ABXY$ and $ACWZ$ are constructed outside of the triangle. The points $X, Y, Z$ , and $W$ lie on a circle. What is the perimeter of the triangle?

$\textbf{(A) }12+9\sqrt{3}\qquad\textbf{(B) }18+6\sqrt{3}\qquad\textbf{(C) }12+12\sqrt{2}\qquad\textbf{(D) }30\qquad\textbf{(E) }32$

Solution 1

The center of the circle lies on the perpendicular bisectors of both chords $ZW$ and $YX$ . Therefore we know the center of the circle must also be the midpoint of the hypotenuse. Let this point be $O$ . Draw perpendiculars to $ZW$ and $YX$ from $O$ , and connect $OZ$ and $OY$ . $OY^2=6^2+12^2=180$ . Let $AC=a$ and $BC=b$ . Then $\left(\dfrac{a}{2}\right)^2+\left(a+\dfrac{b}{2}\right)^2=OZ^2=OY^2=180$ . Simplifying this gives $\dfrac{a^2}{4}+\dfrac{b^2}{4}+a^2+ab=180$ . But by Pythagorean Theorem on $\triangle ABC$ , we know $a^2+b^2=144$ , because $AB=12$ . Thus $\dfrac{a^2}{4}+\dfrac{b^2}{4}=\dfrac{144}{4}=36$ . So our equation simplifies further to $a^2+ab=144$ . However $a^2+b^2=144$ , so $a^2+ab=a^2+b^2$ , which means $ab=b^2$ , or $a=b$ . Aha! This means $\triangle ABC$ is just an isosceles right triangle, so $AC=BC=\dfrac{12}{\sqrt{2}}=6\sqrt{2}$ , and thus the perimeter is $\boxed{\textbf{(C)}\ 12+12\sqrt{2}}$ . $[asy] /* Geogebra to Asymptote conversion, documentation at artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki, go to User:Azjps/geogebra */ import graph; size(11.5cm); real labelscalefactor = 0.5; /* changes label-to-point distance */ pen dps = linewidth(0.7) + fontsize(10); defaultpen(dps); /* default pen style */ pen dotstyle = black; /* point style */ real xmin = -4.3, xmax = 18.7, ymin = -5.26, ymax = 6.3; /* image dimensions */ draw((3.46,0.96)--(3.44,-3.36)--(8.02,-3.44)--cycle); draw((3.46,0.96)--(8.02,-3.44)--(12.42,1.12)--(7.86,5.52)--cycle); /* draw figures */ draw((3.46,0.96)--(3.44,-3.36)); draw((3.44,-3.36)--(8.02,-3.44)); draw((8.02,-3.44)--(3.46,0.96)); draw((3.46,0.96)--(-0.86,0.98)); draw((-0.86,0.98)--(-0.88,-3.34)); draw((-0.88,-3.34)--(3.44,-3.36)); draw((3.46,0.96)--(8.02,-3.44)); draw((8.02,-3.44)--(12.42,1.12)); draw((12.42,1.12)--(7.86,5.52)); draw((7.86,5.52)--(3.46,0.96)); draw((5.74,-1.24)--(-0.86,0.98)); draw((5.74,-1.24)--(-0.87,-1.18), linetype("4 4")); draw((5.74,-1.24)--(7.86,5.52)); draw((5.74,-1.24)--(10.14,3.32), linetype("4 4")); draw(shift((5.82,-1.21))*xscale(6.99920709795045)*yscale(6.99920709795045)*arc((0,0),1,19.44457562540183,197.63600413408128), linetype("2 2")); /* dots and labels */ dot((3.46,0.96),dotstyle); label("$A$", (3.2,1.06), NE * labelscalefactor); dot((3.44,-3.36),dotstyle); label("$C$", (3.14,-3.86), NE * labelscalefactor); dot((8.02,-3.44),dotstyle); label("$B$", (8.06,-3.8), NE * labelscalefactor); dot((-0.86,0.98),dotstyle); label("$Z$", (-1.34,1.12), NE * labelscalefactor); dot((-0.88,-3.34),dotstyle); label("$W$", (-1.48,-3.54), NE * labelscalefactor); dot((12.42,1.12),dotstyle); label("$X$", (12.5,1.24), NE * labelscalefactor); dot((7.86,5.52),dotstyle); label("$Y$", (7.94,5.64), NE * labelscalefactor); dot((5.74,-1.24),dotstyle); label("$O$", (5.52,-1.82), NE * labelscalefactor); clip((xmin,ymin)--(xmin,ymax)--(xmax,ymax)--(xmax,ymin)--cycle); [/asy]$

Solution 2

Let $AC = b$ and $AB = c$ . Draw line segments $YZ$ and $WX$ . Now we have cyclic quadrilateral $WXYZ$ . This means that opposite angles sum to $180^{\circ}$ . Therefore, $90 + m\angle YZA + 90 - m\angle WXB = 180$ . Simplifying carefully, we get $m\angle YZA = m\angle WXB$ . Similarly, you can find that $m\angle{ZYA}$ = $m\angle{XWB}$ . So, we know that $\triangle ZYA$ is similar to $\triangle WBX$ . So $BC = \sqrt{c^2-b^2}$ . Now, we can use the proportion $\dfrac{c}{b} = \dfrac{b + \sqrt{c^2-b^2}}{c}$ . Simplifying, we get $c^2 - b^2 = b \sqrt{c^2-b^2}$ , which gives us $c = b\sqrt{2}$ . Therefore, $\triangle ABC$ is an isosceles right triangle, so $AC=BC=\dfrac{12}{\sqrt{2}}=6\sqrt{2}$ , and the perimeter is $\boxed{\textbf{(C)}\ 12+12\sqrt{2}}$ .

~LegionOfAvatars

2015 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 18	Followed by Problem 20
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

Page

Toolbox

Search

2015 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 19

Contents

Problem

Solution 1

Solution 2

See Also