Difference between revisions of "1962 AHSME Problems/Problem 20"

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the middle term is equal to the average of all the terms.)
 
the middle term is equal to the average of all the terms.)
  
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==Solution 2==
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If we write the five terms as <math>a</math>, <math>a - n</math>, <math>a - 2n</math>, <math>a + n</math> and <math>a + 2n</math>, we can see that adding them up, we get <math>5a = 540</math> through this, we can see that <math>a = 108</math>, <math>\fbox{\textbf{(A)}}</math>
  
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==

Latest revision as of 20:00, 29 October 2020

Problem

The angles of a pentagon are in arithmetic progression. One of the angles in degrees, must be:

$\textbf{(A)}\ 108\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 90\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 72\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 54\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 36$

Solution

If the angles are in an arithmetic progression, they can be expressed as $a$, $a+n$, $a+2n$, $a+3n$, and $a+4n$ for some real numbers $a$ and $n$. Now we know that the sum of the degree measures of the angles of a pentagon is $180(5-2)=540$. Adding our expressions for the five angles together, we get $5a+10n=540$. We now divide by 5 to get $a+2n=108$. It so happens that $a+2n$ is one of the angles we defined earlier, so that angle must have a measure of $\boxed{108\textbf{ (A)}}$. (In fact, for any arithmetic progression with an odd number of terms, the middle term is equal to the average of all the terms.)

Solution 2

If we write the five terms as $a$, $a - n$, $a - 2n$, $a + n$ and $a + 2n$, we can see that adding them up, we get $5a = 540$ through this, we can see that $a = 108$, $\fbox{\textbf{(A)}}$

See Also

1962 AHSC (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 19
Followed by
Problem 21
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