2013 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 23

Problem

Angle $ABC$ of $\triangle ABC$ is a right angle. The sides of $\triangle ABC$ are the diameters of semicircles as shown. The area of the semicircle on $\overline{AB}$ equals $8\pi$ , and the arc of the semicircle on $\overline{AC}$ has length $8.5\pi$ . What is the radius of the semicircle on $\overline{BC}$ ? $[asy] import graph; draw((0,8)..(-4,4)..(0,0)--(0,8)); draw((0,0)..(7.5,-7.5)..(15,0)--(0,0)); real theta = aTan(8/15); draw(arc((15/2,4),17/2,-theta,180-theta)); draw((0,8)--(15,0)); [/asy]$

$\textbf{(A)}\ 7 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 7.5 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 8 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 8.5 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 9$

Solution 1

If the semicircle on AB were a full circle, the area would be 16pi. Therefore the diameter of the first circle is 8. The arc of the largest semicircle would normally have a complete diameter of 17. The Pythagorean theorem says that the other side has length 15, so the radius is $\boxed{(B) 7.5}$ .

2013 AMC 8 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 22	Followed by Problem 24
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2013 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 23

Problem

Solution 1

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