Maths Olympiad Prep

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Problem 937

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Geometry Difficulty 4.7 Find the answer HMMT November Team Round · United States · 2021

The taxicab distance between points (x1,y1)(x_{1}, y_{1}) and (x2,y2)(x_{2}, y_{2}) is x2x1+y2y1|x_{2}-x_{1}|+|y_{2}-y_{1}|. A regular octagon is positioned in the xyxy plane so that one of its sides has endpoints (0,0)(0,0) and (1,0)(1,0). Let SS be the set of all points inside the octagon whose taxicab distance from some octagon vertex is at most 23\frac{2}{3}. The area of SS can be written as mn\frac{m}{n}, where m,nm, n are positive integers and gcd(m,n)=1\operatorname{gcd}(m, n)=1. Find 100m+n100m+n.

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

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Official solution

Solution:
Figure 1
In the taxicab metric, the set of points that lie at most dd units away from some fixed point PP form a square centered at PP with vertices at a distance of dd from PP in directions parallel to the axes. The diagram above depicts the intersection of an octagon with eight such squares for d=23d=\frac{2}{3} centered at its vertices. (Note that since 2>232\sqrt{2}>\frac{2}{3} \cdot 2, the squares centered at adjacent vertices that are diagonal from each other do not intersect.) The area of the entire shaded region is 4[ABCDEFG]=4(2([AFG]+[AYF])[EXY])4[ABCDEFG]=4(2([AFG]+[AYF])-[EXY]), which is easy to evaluate since AFGAFG, AYFAYF, and EXYEXY are all 45-45-90-degree triangles. Since AF=23AF=\frac{2}{3}, GF=23GF=\frac{\sqrt{2}}{3}, and EX=132EX=\frac{1}{3\sqrt{2}}, the desired area is 4(29+49136)=2394\left(\frac{2}{9}+\frac{4}{9}-\frac{1}{36}\right)=\frac{23}{9}.

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