The points , , and are on the sides , , and , respectively, of a unit square such that and . The lines , , and form a quadrilateral . Express the area of in terms of .
Solution
The right triangles and have legs of the same length, hence they are congruent. This implies that and so
. This shows that is similar to . Using symmetry we see now that is a square. In particular, and are parallel, hence the triangles and are similar.

From these two similar triangles we obtain . Using that , , (Pythagoras) and symmetry, we obtain now
The area of the quadrilateral , which is equal to the difference of the areas of the triangles and , is therefore equal to
By symmetry again, , and have the same area. As these four quadrilaterals cover without overlap the space between and , the area of the quadrilateral is equal to
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