It's All Squares !!

Level pending

In the above diagram A B C D ABCD and Q M C P QMCP are squares and the vertices of square Q M C P QMCP touch square A B C D ABCD at the midpoint M M of A B AB and vertex C C .

What fractional part of the total area is shaded red?


The answer is 0.4.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Rocco Dalto
Apr 13, 2020

In the diagram above the four red triangles are all similar.

M C = 5 2 A M B C = 1 2 ( 1 2 ) ( 1 ) = 1 4 MC = \dfrac{\sqrt{5}}{2} \implies A_{\triangle{MBC}} = \dfrac{1}{2}(\dfrac{1}{2})(1) = \dfrac{1}{4} and A M S M B C \triangle{AMS} \sim \triangle{MBC} \implies

1 2 x = 2 x = 1 4 \dfrac{1}{2x} = 2 \implies x = \dfrac{1}{4} \implies A A M S = 1 2 ( 1 2 ) ( 1 4 ) = 1 16 A_{\triangle{AMS}} = \dfrac{1}{2}(\dfrac{1}{2})(\dfrac{1}{4}) = \dfrac{1}{16}

C T D M B C 5 2 = 1 y y = 2 5 \triangle{CTD} \sim \triangle{MBC} \implies \dfrac{\sqrt{5}}{2} = \dfrac{1}{y} \implies y = \dfrac{2}{\sqrt{5}}

D T = 1 4 5 = 1 5 A C D T = 1 2 ( 2 5 ) ( 1 5 ) = 1 5 \implies DT = \sqrt{1 - \dfrac{4}{5}} = \dfrac{1}{5} \implies A_{\triangle{CDT}} = \dfrac{1}{2}(\dfrac{2}{\sqrt{5}})(\dfrac{1}{\sqrt{5}}) = \dfrac{1}{5}

and R D = 5 2 1 5 = 3 2 5 RD = \dfrac{\sqrt{5}}{2} - \dfrac{1}{\sqrt{5}} = \dfrac{3}{2\sqrt{5}} and S R D M B C \triangle{SRD} \sim \triangle{MBC} \implies

2 5 3 = 1 2 z z = 3 4 5 \dfrac{2\sqrt{5}}{3} = \dfrac{1}{2z} \implies z = \dfrac{3}{4\sqrt{5}} \implies A S R D = 1 2 ( 3 4 5 ) ( 3 2 5 ) = 9 80 A_{\triangle{SRD}} = \dfrac{1}{2}(\dfrac{3}{4\sqrt{5}})(\dfrac{3}{2\sqrt{5}}) = \dfrac{9}{80}

A r e d = 1 4 + 1 16 + 1 5 + 9 80 = 5 8 \implies A_{red} = \dfrac{1}{4} + \dfrac{1}{16} + \dfrac{1}{5} + \dfrac{9}{80} = \dfrac{5}{8}

The total area A T = A Q M C P + A M B C + A A M S = 5 4 + 1 4 + 1 16 = 25 16 A_{T} = A_{QMCP} + A_{\triangle{MBC}} + A_{\triangle{AMS}} = \dfrac{5}{4} + \dfrac{1}{4} + \dfrac{1}{16} = \dfrac{25}{16}

\implies the desired area A = A r e d A T = 2 5 = 0.4 A = \dfrac{A_{red}}{A_{T}} = \dfrac{2}{5} = \boxed{0.4} .

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...