Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /137 of 310

, 2012

Geometry Difficulty 2.2 Junior Find the answer Canada

Five identical squares form rectangle PQRSPQRS, as shown. The perimeter of rectangle PQRSPQRS is 48. What is the area of PQRSPQRS?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Suppose that the side length of each of the five identical squares is xx.

Then PS=QR=xPS = QR = x and PQ=SR=5xPQ = SR = 5x.

Since the perimeter of rectangle PQRSPQRS is 48, then 5x+x+5x+x=485x+x+5x+x=48 or 12x=4812x=48 or x=4x=4.

Therefore, PS=QR=4PS = QR = 4 and PQ=SR=54=20PQ = SR = 5 \cdot 4 = 20, and so the area of rectangle PQRSPQRS is 204=8020 \cdot 4 = 80.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,444 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: CEMC, University of Waterloo, licensed CC-BY-NC-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.