Let be a trapezoid with two right angles and side lengths , and . Two line segments are drawn, connecting the midpoints of opposite sides of and dividing into 4 regions. If the difference between the areas of the largest and smallest of these regions is , compute .
Solution
By checking all the possibilities, one can show that has height 4 and base lengths 4 and 5. Orient so that the shorter base is on the top. Then, the length of the cut parallel to the bases is . Thus, the top two pieces are trapezoids with height 2 and base lengths 2 and , while the bottom two pieces are trapezoids with height 2 and base lengths and . Thus, using the area formula for a trapezoid, the difference between the largest and smallest areas is
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