2014 AIME I Problems/Problem 13
Contents
Problem 13
On square
, points
, and
lie on sides
and
respectively, so that
and
. Segments
and
intersect at a point
, and the areas of the quadrilaterals
and
are in the ratio
Find the area of square
.
Solution
Notice that
. This means
passes through the centre of the square.
Draw
with
on
,
on
such that
and
intersects at the centre of the square
.
Let the area of the square be
. Then the area of
and the area of
. This is because
is perpendicular to
(given in the problem), so
is also perpendicular to
. These two orthogonal lines also pass through the center of the square, so they split it into 4 congruent quadrilaterals.
Let the side length of the square be
.
Draw
and intersects
at
.
.
The area of
, so the area of
.
Let
. Then
Consider the area of
.
Thus,
.
Solving
, we get
.
Therefore, the area of
Lazy Solution
, a multiple of
. In addition,
, which is
.
Therefore, we suspect the square of the "hypotenuse" of a right triangle, corresponding to
and
must be a multiple of
. All of these triples are primitive:
The sides of the square can only equal the longer leg, or else the lines would have to extend outside of the square. Substituting
:
Thus,
is the only valid answer.
See also
| 2014 AIME I (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
| Preceded by Problem 12 |
Followed by Problem 14 | |
| 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 | ||
| All AIME Problems and Solutions | ||
These problems are copyrighted © by the Mathematical Association of America, as part of the American Mathematics Competitions.