2015 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 24

The following problem is from both the 2015 AMC 12A #19 and 2015 AMC 10A #24, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

For some positive integers $p$ , there is a quadrilateral $ABCD$ with positive integer side lengths, perimeter $p$ , right angles at $B$ and $C$ , $AB=2$ , and $CD=AD$ . How many different values of $p<2015$ are possible?

$\textbf{(A) }30\qquad\textbf{(B) }31\qquad\textbf{(C) }61\qquad\textbf{(D) }62\qquad\textbf{(E) }63$

Solution

Let $BC = x$ and $CD = AD = y$ be positive integers. Drop a perpendicular from $A$ to $CD$ to show that, using the Pythagorean Theorem, that $x^2 + (y - 2)^2 = y^2.$ Simplifying yields $x^2 - 4y + 4 = 0$ , so $x^2 = 4(y - 1)$ . Thus, $y$ is one more than a perfect square.

The perimeter $p = 2 + x + 2y = 2y + 2\sqrt{y - 1} + 2$ must be less than 2015. Simple calculations demonstrate that $y = 31^2 + 1 = 962$ is valid, but $y = 32^2 + 1 = 1025$ is not. On the lower side, $y = 1$ does not work (because $x > 0$ ), but $y = 1^2 + 1$ does work. Hence, there are 31 valid $y$ (all $y$ such that $y = n^2 + 1$ for $1 \le n \le 31$ ), and so our answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(B) } 31}$

2015 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 23	Followed by Problem 25
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

2015 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 18	Followed by Problem 20
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

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.

Introductory Geometry Problems

Page

Toolbox

Search

2015 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 24

Problem

Solution

See Also