Maths Olympiad Prep

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Problem 467

Geometry Difficulty 2.8 Find the answer CEMC Fermat

A square has side length 5. In how many different locations can point XX be placed so that the distances from XX to the four sides of the square are 1,2,31,2,3, and 4?

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

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Official solution

Label the square as ABCDA B C D. Suppose that the point XX is 1 unit from side ABA B. Then XX lies on a line segment YZY Z that is 1 unit below side ABA B. Note that if XX lies on YZY Z, then it is automatically 4 units from side DCD C. Since XX must be 2 units from either side ADA D or side BCB C, then there are 2 possible locations for XX on this line segment. Note that in either case, XX is 3 units from the fourth side, so the four distances are 1, 2, 3, 4 as required. We can repeat the process with XX being 2,3 or 4 units away from side ABA B. In each case, there will be 2 possible locations for XX. Overall, there are 4(2)=84(2)=8 possible locations for XX. These 8 locations are all different, since there are 2 different points on each of 4 parallel lines.

Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty, ordering) added by this project.