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Three of the four sides of a certain quadrilateral have lengths of 3, 4, and 5, and two of its four angles measure 90°. Let A be the sum of all possible distinct areas this quadrilateral could have. What isDetails and assumptions
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The best way to explain my solution is with a drawing. Below, I mapped out all of the possible arrangements of sides and right angles. It should go without saying, but these diagrams are NOT to scale! They are purely for "bookkeeping" purposes.
18 cases
Then, in each case, I set out to find the area of the quadrilateral. In some cases, no such quadrilateral could be constructed, and in one case, multiple quadrilaterals could. Below are the results of my calculations (the details of which are left to the reader).
areas found
A remark about the color-coding in the image:
Also, a note about the quadrilateral with the "30" inside it: In this case, two quadrilaterals were possible. These quadrilaterals have areas of 2 3 ( 1 0 + 7 ) and 2 3 ( 1 0 − 7 ) , the sum of which is 30. (There's a nice picture you could draw to show why this is the case, obviating the need to calculate each individual area.)
So therefore
A = 1 6 + 2 2 7 + 2 3 5 + 8 3 + 9 2 + 7 6 + 1 8 + 3 0 + ( 2 1 5 + 6 2 ) + ( 1 0 + 6 2 ) ,
which simplifies to
2 2 2 5 + 2 1 2 + 8 3 + 7 6 ≈ 1 7 3 . 2 ,
so ⌊ A ⌋ = 1 7 3 .