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Geometry Difficulty 3.5 AMC 10/12 Find the answer

In rectangle ABCDABCD, DC=2CBDC = 2 \cdot CB and points EE and FF lie on AB\overline{AB} so that ED\overline{ED} and FD\overline{FD} trisect ADC\angle ADC as shown. What is the ratio of the area of DEF\triangle DEF to the area of rectangle ABCDABCD?

Pick one

Solution

Let the length of ADAD be xx, so that the length of ABAB is 2x2x and [ABCD]=2x2\text{[}ABCD\text{]}=2x^2.
Because ABCDABCD is a rectangle, ADC=90\angle ADC=90^{\circ}, and so ADE=EDF=FDC=30\angle ADE=\angle EDF=\angle FDC=30^{\circ}. Thus DAE\triangle DAE is a 30609030-60-90 right triangle; this implies that DEF=18060=120\angle DEF=180^{\circ}-60^{\circ}=120^{\circ}, so EFD=180(120+30)=30\angle EFD=180^{\circ}-(120^{\circ}+30^{\circ})=30^{\circ}. Now drop the altitude from EE of DEF\triangle DEF, forming two 30609030-60-90 triangles.
Because the length of ADAD is xx, from the properties of a 30609030-60-90 triangle the length of AEAE is x33\frac{x\sqrt{3}}{3} and the length of DEDE is thus 2x33\frac{2x\sqrt{3}}{3}. Thus the altitude of DEF\triangle DEF is x33\frac{x\sqrt{3}}{3}, and its base is 2x2x, so its area is 12(2x)(x33)=x233\frac{1}{2}(2x)\left(\frac{x\sqrt{3}}{3}\right)=\frac{x^2\sqrt{3}}{3}.
To finish, [DEF][ABCD]=x2332x2=(A) 36\frac{\text{[}\triangle DEF\text{]}}{\text{[}ABCD\text{]}}=\frac{\frac{x^2\sqrt{3}}{3}}{2x^2}=\boxed{\textbf{(A) }\frac{\sqrt{3}}{6}}.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.