2003 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 23
- The following problem is from both the 2003 AMC 12B #15 and 2003 AMC 10B #23, so both problems redirect to this page.
Problem
A regular octagon 
has an area of one square unit. What is the area of the rectangle 
?
![[asy] unitsize(1cm); defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(8pt)); pair C=dir(22.5), B=dir(67.5), A=dir(112.5), H=dir(157.5), G=dir(202.5), F=dir(247.5), E=dir(292.5), D=dir(337.5); draw(A--B--C--D--E--F--G--H--cycle); label("$A$",A,NNW); label("$B$",B,NNE); label("$C$",C,ENE); label("$D$",D,ESE); label("$E$",E,SSE); label("$F$",F,SSW); label("$G$",G,WSW); label("$H$",H,WNW);[/asy]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/5/0/e/50ef8af0ec716cfeea89017a030c7d57d3b40e4c.png)
Solution
Solution 1
Here is an easy way to look at this, where 
is the perimeter, and 
is the apothem:
Area of Octagon: 
.
Area of Rectangle: 
.
You can see from this that the octagon's area is twice as large as the rectangle's area is 
.
Solution 2
Here is a less complicated way than that of the user above. If you draw a line segment from each vertex to the center of the octagon and draw the rectangle ABEF, you can see that two of the triangles share the same base and height with half the rectangle. Therefore, the rectangle's area is the same as 4 of the 8 triangles, and is the area of the octagon.
See Also
| 2003 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
| Preceded by Problem 14 |
Followed by Problem 16 |
| 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 | |
| 2003 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
| Preceded by Problem 22 |
Followed by Problem 24 | |
| 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 | ||
The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions. 
