Art of Problem Solving
AoPS Online
Math texts, online classes, and more
for students in grades 5-12.
Visit AoPS Online ‚
Books for Grades 5-12 Online Courses
Beast Academy
Engaging math books and online learning
for students ages 6-13.
Visit Beast Academy ‚
Books for Ages 6-13 Beast Academy Online
AoPS Academy
Small live classes for advanced math
and language arts learners in grades 2-12.
Visit AoPS Academy ‚
Find a Physical Campus Visit the Virtual Campus

2013 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 16

Revision as of 19:03, 1 February 2015 by Haradica (talk | contribs) (→‎See also)

Problem

In triangle $ABC$, medians $AD$ and $CE$ intersect at $P$, $PE=1.5$, $PD=2$, and $DE=2.5$. What is the area of $AEDC$?

$\qquad\textbf{(A)}13\qquad\textbf{(B)}13.5\qquad\textbf{(C)}14\qquad\textbf{(D)}14.5\qquad\textbf{(E)}15$ [asy] pair A,B,C,D,E,P; A=(0,0); B=(80,0); C=(20,40); D=(50,20); E=(40,0); P=(33.3,13.3); draw(A--B); draw(B--C); draw(A--C); draw(C--E); draw(A--D); draw(D--E); dot(A); dot(B); dot(C); dot(D); dot(E); dot(P); label("A",A,NNW); label("B",B,NNE); label("C",C,ENE); label("D",D,ESE); label("E",E,SSE); label("P",P,SSE); [/asy]

Solution

Solution 1

Let us use mass points: Assign $B$ mass $1$. Thus, because $E$ is the midpoint of $AB$, $A$ also has a mass of $1$. Similarly, $C$ has a mass of $1$. $D$ and $E$ each have a mass of $2$ because they are between $B$ and $C$ and $A$ and $B$ respectively. Note that the mass of $D$ is twice the mass of $A$, so AP must be twice as long as $PD$. PD has length $2$, so $AP$ has length $4$ and $AD$ has length $6$. Similarly, $CP$ is twice $PE$ and $PE=1.5$, so $CP=3$ and $CE=4.5$. Now note that triangle $PED$ is a $3-4-5$ right triangle with the right angle $DPE$. This means that the quadrilateral $AEDC$ is a kite. The area of a kite is half the product of the diagonals, $AD$ and $CE$. Recall that they are $6$ and $4.5$ respectively, so the area of $AEDC$ is $6*4.5/2=\boxed{\textbf{(B)} 13.5}$

Solution 2

Note that triangle $DPE$ is a right triangle, and that the four angles that have point $P$ are all right angles. Using the fact that the centroid ($P$) divides each median in a $2:1$ ratio, $AP=4$ and $CP=3$. Quadrilateral $AEDC$ is now just four right triangles. The area is $\frac{4\cdot 1.5+4\cdot 3+3\cdot 2+2\cdot 1.5}{2}=\boxed{\textbf{(B)} 13.5}$

See also

2013 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by
Problem 15 		Followed by
Problem 17
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. AMC logo.png

From the solution above, we can find the length of the diagonals to be 6 and 4.5. Now, since AEDC is a trapezoid, we use the area formula to find that the total area is $\frac{6\times4.5}{2} = \frac{27}{2} = 13.5 = \boxed{B}$

Retrieved from "https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php?title=2013_AMC_10B_Problems/Problem_16&oldid=67154"