2006 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 15
Contents
Problem
Circles with centers and have radii 2 and 4, respectively, and are externally tangent. Points and are on the circle centered at , and points and are on the circle centered at , such that and are common external tangents to the circles. What is the area of hexagon ?
Solution
Draw the altitude from onto and call the point . Because and are right angles due to being tangent to the circles, and the altitude creates as a right angle. is a rectangle with bisecting . The length is and has a length of , so by pythagorean's, is .
, which is half the area of the hexagon, so the area of the entire hexagon is
Solution 2
ADOP and OPBC are congruent right trapezoids with legs 2 and 4 and with OP equal to 6. Draw an altitude from O to either DP or CP, creating a rectangle with width 2 and base x, and a right triangle with one leg 2, the hypotenuse 6, and the other x. Using the Pythagorean theorem, x is equal to , and x is also equal to the height of the trapezoid. The area of the trapezoid is thus . and the total area is two trapezoids, or .
See also
2006 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
Preceded by Problem 14 |
Followed by Problem 16 |
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All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions |