Square

Geometry Level 3

Each green point is the midpoint of the side of the square.

Which area is larger, that of the blue triangle or the red quadrilateral?

They are equal The red quadrilateral's area The blue triangle's area

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1 solution

Chew-Seong Cheong
Aug 21, 2017

Let the square be A B C D ABCD with side length 2 a 2a , the midpoints be M M and N N , and A N AN cuts D M DM at P P .

We note that A M P \triangle AMP , A P D \triangle APD and A M D \triangle AMD are similar 1-2- 5 \sqrt 5 triangles. Therefore, the areas are directly proportional to the squares of their hypotenuse. Therefore, [ A M P ] : [ A P D ] : [ A M D ] = a 2 : ( 2 a ) 2 : ( 5 a ) 2 = 1 : 4 : 5 [AMP]:[APD]:[AMD] = a^2: (2a)^2: (\sqrt 5 a)^2 = 1:4: 5 . Since [ A M D ] = 1 2 ( a ) ( 2 a ) = a 2 [AMD] = \frac 12 (a)(2a) = a^2 , then [ A M P ] = 1 5 a 2 [AMP] = \frac 15 a^2 and [ A P D ] = 4 5 a 2 [APD] = \frac 45 a^2 .

Now, we have:

{ A r e d = [ M B N P ] = [ A B N ] [ A M P ] = 1 2 ( a ) ( 2 a ) 1 5 a 2 = 4 5 a 2 A b l u e = [ D N P ] = [ A D N ] [ A P D ] = 1 2 ( 2 a ) ( 2 a ) 4 5 a 2 = 6 5 a 2 \begin{cases} A_{\color{#D61F06}red} = [MBNP] = [ABN] - [AMP] = \frac 12 (a)(2a) - \frac 15 a^2 = \frac 45 a^2 \\ A_{\color{#3D99F6}blue} = [DNP] = [ADN] - [APD] = \frac 12(2a)(2a) - \frac 45 a^2 = \frac 65 a^2 \end{cases}

A b l u e > A r e d \implies \boxed{A_{\color{#3D99F6}blue} > A_{\color{#D61F06}red}} .

Areas are proportional to the squares of respective hypotenuses, so the ratios of areas are actually 1:4:5.

Marta Reece - 3 years, 9 months ago

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Yes, I forgot that. Thanks.

Chew-Seong Cheong - 3 years, 9 months ago

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