2003 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 20

Revision as of 12:11, 4 September 2015 by IequalSmart (talk | contribs) (Solution)
The following problem is from both the 2003 AMC 12B #14 and 2003 AMC 10B #20, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

In rectangle $ABCD, AB=5$ and $BC=3$. Points $F$ and $G$ are on $\overline{CD}$ so that $DF=1$ and $GC=2$. Lines $AF$ and $BG$ intersect at $E$. Find the area of $\triangle AEB$.

$\textbf{(A) } 10 \qquad\textbf{(B) } \frac{21}{2} \qquad\textbf{(C) } 12 \qquad\textbf{(D) } \frac{25}{2} \qquad\textbf{(E) } 15$

Solution

[asy] unitsize(8mm); defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(10pt)); dotfactor=4;  pair A=(0,0), B=(5,0), C=(5,3), D=(0,3); pair F=(1,3), G=(3,3); pair E=(5/3,5);  draw(A--B--C--D--cycle); draw(A--E); draw(B--E);  pair[] ps={A,B,C,D,E,F,G}; dot(ps); label("$A$",A,SW); label("$B$",B,SE); label("$C$",C,NE); label("$D$",D,NW); label("$E$",E,N); label("$F$",F,SE); label("$G$",G,SW); label("$1$",midpoint(D--F),N); label("$2$",midpoint(G--C),N); label("$5$",midpoint(A--B),S); label("$3$",midpoint(A--D),W); [/asy]

$\triangle EFG \sim \triangle EAB$ because $FG \parallel AB.$ The ratio of $\triangle EFG$ to $\triangle EAB$ is $2:5$ since $AB=5$ and $FG=2$ from subtraction. If we let $h$ be the height of $\triangle EAB,$

\[\frac{2}{5} = \frac{h-3}{h}\\, 2h = 5h-15\\, 3h = 15\\, h = 5\]

The height is $5$ so the area of $\triangle EAB$ is $\frac{1}{2}(5)(5) = \boxed{\textbf{(D)}\ \frac{25}{2}}$.

See Also

2003 AMC 12B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 13
Followed by
Problem 15
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 (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 19
Followed by
Problem 21
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

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