In rectangle , and points and lie on so that and trisect as shown. What is the ratio of the area of to the area of rectangle ?
Pick one
Solution
Let the length of be , so that the length of is and .
Because is a rectangle, , and so . Thus is a right triangle; this implies that , so . Now drop the altitude from of , forming two triangles.
Because the length of is , from the properties of a triangle the length of is and the length of is thus . Thus the altitude of is , and its base is , so its area is .
To finish, .
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