2021 Fall AMC 12A Problems/Problem 14

Problem

In the figure, equilateral hexagon $ABCDEF$ has three nonadjacent acute interior angles that each measure $30^\circ$ . The enclosed area of the hexagon is $6\sqrt{3}$ . What is the perimeter of the hexagon? $[asy] size(10cm); pen p=black+linewidth(1),q=black+linewidth(5); pair C=(0,0),D=(cos(pi/12),sin(pi/12)),E=rotate(150,D)*C,F=rotate(-30,E)*D,A=rotate(150,F)*E,B=rotate(-30,A)*F; draw(C--D--E--F--A--B--cycle,p); dot(A,q); dot(B,q); dot(C,q); dot(D,q); dot(E,q); dot(F,q); label("$C$",C,2*S); label("$D$",D,2*S); label("$E$",E,2*S); label("$F$",F,2*dir(0)); label("$A$",A,2*N); label("$B$",B,2*W); [/asy]$ $\textbf{(A)} \: 4 \qquad \textbf{(B)} \: 4\sqrt3 \qquad \textbf{(C)} \: 12 \qquad \textbf{(D)} \: 18 \qquad \textbf{(E)} \: 12\sqrt3$

Solution (Law of Cosines and Equilateral Triangle Area)

Isosceles triangles $ABE$ , $CBD$ , and $EDF$ are identical by SAS similarity. $BF=BD=DF$ by CPCTC, and triangle $BDF$ is equilateral.

Let the side length of the hexagon be $s$ .

The area of each isosceles triangle is $\frac{1}{2}s^2\sin{30}=\frac{1}{4}s^2$ by the fourth formula here.

By the Law of Cosines, the square of the side length of equilateral triangle BDF is $2s^2-2x^2\cos{30}=(2-\sqrt{3})s^2$ . Hence, the area of the equilateral triangle is $\frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}(2-\sqrt{3})s^2=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}s^2-\frac{3}{4}s^2$ .

So, the total area of the hexagon is the area of the equilateral triangle plus thrice the area of each isosceles triangle or $\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}s^2-\frac{3}{4}s^2+3(\frac{1}{4}s^2)=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}s^2=6\sqrt{3}$ . The perimeter is $6s=\boxed{12\sqrt{3}}$ .

2021 Fall AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 13	Followed by Problem 35
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2021 Fall AMC 12A Problems/Problem 14

Problem

Solution (Law of Cosines and Equilateral Triangle Area)