2021 WSMO Accuracy Round Problems/Problem 5

Revision as of 10:51, 6 January 2022 by Captainnobody (talk | contribs) (Solution 1)

Problem

Suppose regular octagon $ABCDEFGH$ has side length $5.$ If the distance from the center of the octagon to one of the sides can be expressed as $\frac{a+b\sqrt{c}}{d}$ where $\gcd{(a,b,d)}=1$ and $c$ is not divisible by the square of any prime, find $a+b+c+d.$

Solution 1

Note that the area of a polygon with $n$ sides, $s$ side length, and $l$ apothem (distance from the center to one of the sides) can be expressed as $(nsl)/2.$ Applying this formula, we get \[(8\cdot 5\cdot l)/2=40l/2=20l.\] Now, we need something to equate to this. Remember that the area of a regular octagon with side length $s$ is $2s^2(1+\sqrt{2}).$ This means that the area of octagon $ABCDEFGH$ is $50+50\sqrt{2}.$ Therefore, the answer is \[l=\frac{50+50\sqrt{2}}{20}=\frac{5+5\sqrt{2}}{2}\implies \boxed{14}.\] ~captainnobody