2010 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 20

Revision as of 22:40, 2 February 2012 by Yesir360 (talk | contribs) (Solution)

Problem

Two circles lie outside regular hexagon $ABCDEF$. The first is tangent to $\overbar{AB}$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg), and the second is tangent to $\overbar{DE}$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg). Both are tangent to lines $BC$ and $FA$. What is the ratio of the area of the second circle to that of the first circle?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 18 \qquad  \textbf{(B)}\ 27 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 36 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 81 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 108$

Solution

A good diagram is very helpful.

Amc10B 2010.gif

The first circle is in red, the second in blue. With this diagram, we can see that the first circle is inscribed in equilateral triangle $GBA$ while the second circle is inscribed in $GKJ$. From this, it's evident that the ratio of the blue area to the red area is equal to the ratio of the areas $\triangle GKJ$ to $\triangle GBA$

Since the ratio of areas is equal to the square of the ratio of lengths, we know our final answer is $\left(\frac{GK}{GB}\right)^2$. From the diagram, we can see that this is $9^2=\boxed{\textbf{(D)}\ 81}$

See Also

2010 AMC 10B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 19
Followed by
Problem 21
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All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions