Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 4 / 229 of 340 #489 of 2000

Problem 489

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Geometry Difficulty 4.9 Find the answer

8. Tony the gardener planted tulips and daisies in a square flowerbed of side-length 12 m12 \mathrm{~m}, arranged as shown. What is the total area, in m2\mathrm{m}^{2}, of the regions in which he planted daisies?
A 48
B 46
C 44
D 40
E 36

Official solution

SOLUTION
A\mathbf{A}

First consider the intersection point of the lines forming the boundaries of the regions containing daisies. Since the arrangement of the regions is symmetric, these lines intersect at the mid-point of the flowerbed. Therefore, the diagonal passes through the intersection point. It divides the daisy beds into four congruent triangles, each of base 4 m4 \mathrm{~m} and height 6 m6 \mathrm{~m} as shown. Hence the total area of the regions in which daisies are grown is, in m2\mathrm{m}^{2}, equal to 4×12×4×6=484 \times \frac{1}{2} \times 4 \times 6=48.

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