2002 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 25

Problem

In trapezoid $ABCD$ with bases $AB$ and $CD$ , we have $AB = 52$ , $BC = 12$ , $CD = 39$ , and $DA = 5$ . The area of $ABCD$ is

$\text{(A)}\ 182 \qquad \text{(B)}\ 195 \qquad \text{(C)}\ 210 \qquad \text{(D)}\ 234 \qquad \text{(E)}\ 260$

Solution

It shouldn't be hard to use trigonometry to bash this and find the height, but there is a much easier way. Extend $\overline{AD}$ and $\overline{BC}$ to meet at point $E$ :

$[asy] size(250); defaultpen(0.8); pair A=(0,0), B = (52,0), C=(52-144/13,60/13), D=(25/13,60/13), F=(100/13,240/13); draw(A--B--C--D--cycle); draw(D--F--C,dashed); label("$A$",A,S); label("$B$",B,S); label("$C$",C,NE); label("$D$",D,W); label("$E$",F,N); label("39",(C+D)/2,N); label("52",(A+B)/2,S); label("5",(A+D)/2,E); label("12",(B+C)/2,WSW); [/asy]$

Since $\overline{AB} || \overline{CD}$ we have $\triangle AEB \sim \triangle DEC$ , with the ratio of proportionality being $\frac {39}{52} = \frac {3}{4}$ . Thus $\begin{align*} \frac {CE}{CE + 12} = \frac {3}{4} & \Longrightarrow CE = 36 \\ \frac {DE}{DE + 5} = \frac {3}{4} & \Longrightarrow DE = 15 \end{align*}$ So the sides of $\triangle CDE$ are $15,36,39$ , which we recognize to be a $5 - 12 - 13$ right triangle. Therefore (we could simplify some of the calculation using that the ratio of areas is equal to the ratio of the sides squared), $[ABCD] = [ABE] - [CDE] = \frac {1}{2}\cdot 20 \cdot 48 - \frac {1}{2} \cdot 15 \cdot 36 = \boxed{\mathrm{(C)}\ 210}$ .

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2002 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 25

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