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Geometry Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Find the answer

In a regular pentagon ABCDEA B C D E, an equilateral triangle ABMA B M is contained. Determine the size of the angle BCMB C M.

(L. Hozová)

Hint. What are the sizes of the interior angles of a regular pentagon?

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

Solution

The size of the internal angles of an equilateral triangle is 6060^{\circ}, the size of the internal angles of a regular pentagon is 108108^{\circ}. At vertex BB, we find that the size of angle CBMC B M is 10860=48108^{\circ}-60^{\circ}=48^{\circ}.

Segments AB,BCA B, B C, and BMB M are congruent, so triangle CBMC B M is isosceles with base CMC M. The internal angles at the base are congruent and their sum is a right angle. The size of angle BCMB C M is therefore 12(18048)=66\frac{1}{2}\left(180^{\circ}-48^{\circ}\right)=66^{\circ}.

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Note. A general nn-sided polygon can be divided into n2n-2 triangles (whose vertices are the vertices of the nn-sided polygon), so the sum of the sizes of its internal angles is (n2)180(n-2) \cdot 180^{\circ}. A regular nn-sided polygon has all internal angles congruent, so the size of each is n2n180\frac{n-2}{n} \cdot 180^{\circ}. This explains the initial relationships for n=3n=3 and n=5n=5.

A regular nn-sided polygon can also be divided into nn congruent isosceles triangles with a common vertex at the center of the nn-sided polygon. For n=5n=5, we get that angle ASBA S B has a size of 15360=72\frac{1}{5} \cdot 360^{\circ}=72^{\circ}, so angles SAB,SBAS A B, S B A, etc., have a size of 12(18072)=54\frac{1}{2}\left(180^{\circ}-72^{\circ}\right)=54^{\circ}.

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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.