GeometryDifficulty 5.7AIME, harderFind the answerUnited States
Three identical square sheets of paper each with side length 6 are stacked on top of each other. The middle sheet is rotated clockwise 30∘ about its center and the top sheet is rotated clockwise 60∘ about its center, resulting in the 24-sided polygon shown in the figure below. The area of this polygon can be expressed in the form a−bc, where a, b, and c are positive integers, and c is not divisible by the square of any prime. What is a+b+c?
A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
Let O be the center of the polygon, and label 11 points as shown in the figure. Let a=AB=BC.
Triangle BCK is a 30-60-90∘ triangle, so BK=2a and CK=KG=a3. Then AG=3a+a3=6, so a=3−3. The area of the 24-sided polygon can be computed as 12 times the area of kite OBCD. The longer diagonal of this kite is OC, half of a diagonal of the square, so OC=32. The shorter diagonal of the kite is BD, the hypotenuse of isosceles right triangle BCD with leg a=3−3. The area of a kite is half the product of the lengths of its diagonals, so the area of the 24-sided polygon is 12⋅21⋅32⋅(3−3)2=108−363. Therefore a+b+c=108+36+3=147.
Solution 2
Label the points as in the first solution, where it was shown that a=AB=BC=3−3. The area of the 24-sided polygon can be found by adding to the area of square AGHI the areas of 8 triangles congruent to △BCK and then subtracting the areas of 4 triangles congruent to △DJK. The area of the square is 36. The area of △BCK is 2a23=2(3−3)23=63−9. To find the area of △DJK, note that it is an isosceles triangle with vertex angle 120∘ and with base JK=6−2a3=12−63. The length of the altitude to the base is then 2312−63=23−3. Thus the area of △DJK is 21⋅(12−63)⋅(23−3)=213−36. Finally, the area of the polygon is 36+8(63−9)−4(213−36)=108−363. Therefore a+b+c=147, as above.
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Source: MathNet,
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