Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 3.9 AMC 10/12 Find the answer United States

Problem:
A square and an equilateral triangle have the property that the area of each is the perimeter of the other. What is the area of the square?

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

Solution

Solution:
Assuming the square has side length xx, it has area x2x^{2}, so the equilateral triangle has side length x2/3x^{2} / 3. The area of the equilateral triangle is then given in two ways by
4x=34(x23)2. 4x = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} \left(\frac{x^{2}}{3}\right)^{2}.
Solving gives x3=1443=483x^{3} = \frac{144}{\sqrt{3}} = 48 \sqrt{3}. Then x6=4823x^{6} = 48^{2} \cdot 3 and x2=48233=28333=1243x^{2} = \sqrt[3]{48^{2} \cdot 3} = \sqrt[3]{2^{8} 3^{3}} = 12 \sqrt[3]{4}

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.