2011 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 20

The following problem is from both the 2011 AMC 12B #16 and 2011 AMC 10B #20, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

Rhombus $ABCD$ has side length $2$ and $\angle B = 120$ °. Region $R$ consists of all points inside the rhombus that are closer to vertex $B$ than any of the other three vertices. What is the area of $R$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{\sqrt{3}}{3} \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} \qquad\textbf{(C)}\ \frac{2\sqrt{3}}{3} \qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 1 + \frac{\sqrt{3}}{3} \qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 2$

Solution

Suppose that $P$ is a point in the rhombus $ABCD$ and let $\ell_{BC}$ be the perpendicular bisector of $\overline{BC}$ . Then $PB < PC$ if and only if $P$ is on the same side of $\ell_{BC}$ as $B$ . The line $\ell_{BC}$ divides the plane into two half-planes; let $S_{BC}$ be the half-plane containing $B$ . Let us define similarly $\ell_{BD},S_{BD}$ and $\ell_{BA},S_{BA}$ . Then $R$ is equal to $ABCD \cap S_{BC} \cap S_{BD} \cap S_{BA}$ . The region turns out to be an irregular pentagon. We can make it easier to find the area of this region by dividing it into four triangles:

$[asy] unitsize(8mm); defaultpen(linewidth(0.8pt)+fontsize(10pt)); dotfactor=4; pair A=(4,0), B=(2,2sqrt(3)), C=(-2,2sqrt(3)), D=(0,0), E=(B+C)/2, F=(B+C+D)/3, G=(A+C)/2, H=(A+B+D)/3, I=(A+B)/2; fill((0,2sqrt(3))--B--(3,sqrt(3))--(2,(2sqrt(3))/3)--(0,(4sqrt(3))/3)--cycle,gray); draw(A--B--C--D--cycle); draw(D--(0,2sqrt(3))); draw(D--(3,sqrt(3))); draw(A--C); draw(F--B--H); draw(B--G); label("$A$",A,SE);label("$B$",B,NE);label("$C$",C,NW);label("$D$",D,SW); label("$E$",E,N);label("$F$",F,SW);label("$G$",G,SW);label("$H$",H,S);label("$I$",I,NE); label("$2$",(D--C),SW); [/asy]$ Since $\triangle BCD$ and $\triangle BAD$ are equilateral, $\ell_{BC}$ contains $D$ , $\ell_{BD}$ contains $A$ and $C$ , and $\ell_{BA}$ contains $D$ . Then $\triangle BEF \cong \triangle BGF \cong \triangle BGH \cong \triangle BIH$ with $BE = 1$ and $EF = \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$ so $[BEF] = \frac{1}{2}\cdot 1 \cdot \frac{\sqrt{3}}{3}$ . Multiply this by 4 and it turns out that the pentagon has area $\boxed{(C)\frac{2\sqrt{3}}{3}}$ .

Solution 2

We follow the steps shown above until we draw pentagon $BIHFE$ . We know that rhombus $ABCD$ can be divided into equilateral triangles $\triangle ABD$ and $\triangle CBD$ . Using the $30-60-90$ special right triangle rules, we find the height of the equilateral triangles (and the height of the rhombus) to be $\sqrt{3}$ . Therefore, the area of $ABCD$ is $2\sqrt{3}$ . We now have to take off the areas $\triangle CDA$ , $\triangle CEF$ , and $\triangle AIH$ to get the desired shape. $\triangle CDA$ is just half of $ABCD$ $(\sqrt {3})$ and $\triangle AIH$ and $\triangle CEF$ are each $\frac{\sqrt {3}}{6}$ , for a total area of $2\sqrt {3}-\sqrt {3}-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{6}-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{6}=\boxed{(C)\frac{2\sqrt{3}}{3}}$ .

Solution 3

We split rhombus $ABCD$ into two equilateral triangles, $ABD$ and $BCD$ . In triangle $ABD$ , the probability that a randomly selected point is closer to $B$ than either other point is $\frac{1}{3}$ (why?). Similarly, in triangle $BCD$ , the same principle applies. Thus, the area of the region closer to $B$ than $A$ , $C$ , or $D$ is $\frac{1}{3} [ABD] + \frac{1}{3} [BCD]$ . Since $ABD$ and $BCD$ are congruent, we have $\frac{1}{3} [ABD] + \frac{1}{3} [BCD] = \frac{2}{3} [ABD] = \frac{2}{3} \cdot \frac{s^2\sqrt{3}}{4} = \frac{2}{3} \cdot \frac{(2)^2\sqrt{3}}{4} = \boxed{\frac{2\sqrt3}{3} = C}$ , and we are done.

Solution 4

$[asy] unitsize(8mm); defaultpen(linewidth(0.8pt)+fontsize(10pt)); dotfactor=4; pair A=(4,0), B=(2,2sqrt(3)), C=(-2,2sqrt(3)), D=(0,0), E=(B+C)/2, F=(B+C+D)/3, G=(A+B+D)/3, H=(A+B)/2; fill((0,2sqrt(3))--B--(3,sqrt(3))--(2,(2sqrt(3))/3)--(0,(4sqrt(3))/3)--cycle,gray); draw(A--B--C--D--cycle); draw(D--(0,2sqrt(3))); draw(D--(3,sqrt(3))); draw(A--C); draw(F--B--H); draw(B--G); label("$A$",A,SE);label("$B$",B,NE);label("$C$",C,NW);label("$D$",D,SW); label("$E$",E,N);label("$F$",F,SW);label("$G$",G,S);label("$H$",H,E); label("$2$",(D--C),SW); [/asy]$ Since $H$ and $E$ are halfway between $AB$ and $CB$ , respectively, we know that $\overline{BH}=\overline{BE}=1$ . By symmetry, $\Delta BFG$ is equilateral, so $\angle FBG=60^\circ\implies\angle EBF=\angle HBG=30^\circ$ and therefore $\Delta EBF$ and $\Delta HBG$ are 30-60-90 right triangles. Thus, $[\Delta EBF]=[\Delta BFG]=\dfrac1{2\sqrt3}$ . We know that $\overline{FB}=\overline{GB}=\dfrac2{\sqrt3}$ , so therefore $[\Delta BFG]=\dfrac{\sqrt3}4\left(\dfrac2{\sqrt3}\right)^2=\dfrac1{\sqrt3}$ . Summing these three regions, we get $\dfrac1{2\sqrt3}+\dfrac1{2\sqrt3}+\dfrac1{\sqrt3}=\boxed{\textbf{(C)}~\dfrac{2\sqrt3}3}$ . ~ Technodoggo, Asymptote diagram modified from Solution 1

Solution 5

$[asy] unitsize(8mm); defaultpen(linewidth(0.8pt)+fontsize(10pt)); dotfactor=4; pair A=(4,0), B=(2,2sqrt(3)), C=(-2,2sqrt(3)), D=(0,0), E=(B+C)/2, F=(B+C+D)/3, G=(A+B+D)/3, H=(A+B)/2; fill((0,2sqrt(3))--B--(3,sqrt(3))--(2,(2sqrt(3))/3)--(0,(4sqrt(3))/3)--cycle,gray); draw(A--B--C--D--cycle); draw(D--F); draw(D--G); draw(F--C); draw(A--G); draw(F--B); draw(B--G); draw(B--D); label("$A$",A,SE);label("$B$",B,NE);label("$C$",C,NW);label("$D$",D,SW); label("$E$",E,N);label("$F$",F,SW);label("$G$",G,S);label("$H$",H,E); label("$2$",(D--C),SW); [/asy]$ To keep it simple, break rhombus $ABCD$ into two triangles, $ABD$ and $BCD$ . To see the area closest to the point $B$ , notice that a third of each triangle, which contains all the points nearest to $B$ in each triangle, is easily visualizable. Thus, a third of rhombus $ABCD$ must be found.

We find the total area of rhombus $ABCD$ , which we can again split into two congruent equilateral triangles with side length $2$ . Using the formula of equilateral triangles and then multiplying by $\dfrac{1}{3}$ : $\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{4}\cdot 2^2 \cdot 2 \cdot \dfrac{1}{3} = 2\sqrt{3} \cdot \dfrac{1}{3} = \boxed{\textbf{(C)}}~\dfrac{2\sqrt{3}}{3}$ -NSAoPS, diagram modified from Solution 1.

Video Solution by TheBeautyofMath

https://youtu.be/gCmQlaiEG5A

~IceMatrix

2011 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 19	Followed by Problem 21
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

2011 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 15	Followed by Problem 17
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

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