Trapezium and Triangle

Geometry Level 1

In the figure bellow the trapezium A B C D ABCD is isosceles. A B AB is parallel to C D CD and the diagonals A C AC and B D BD are crossing in the point P P . The triangle A B P ABP has an area of 4 cm 2 4\text{cm}^{2} and the triangle D C P DCP has an area of 9 cm 2 9\text{cm}^{2} . What is the area of the triangle B C P BCP in cm 2 \text{cm}^{2} ?


The answer is 6.

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.

2 solutions

Tom Engelsman
Jul 19, 2019

Since the trapezoid A B C D ABCD is isosceles, let A P = B P = x , C P = D P = y AP = BP = x, CP = DP = y and angle A P B APB = angle C P D CPD = θ . \theta. The areas of triangles A P B , C P D APB, CPD are respectively given to be:

1 2 x 2 s i n ( θ ) = 4 , 1 2 y 2 s i n ( θ ) = 9 \frac{1}{2} x^2 sin(\theta) = 4, \frac{1}{2} y^2 sin(\theta) = 9

which solving for y y in terms of x x gives: 4 x 2 = 9 y 2 y = 3 2 x . \frac{4}{x^2} = \frac{9}{y^2} \Rightarrow y = \frac{3}{2} x. The area of triangle B P C BPC now computes to:

1 2 x y s i n ( π θ ) = 1 2 x y s i n ( θ ) = 1 2 x ( 3 2 x ) s i n ( θ ) = 3 2 [ 1 2 x 2 s i n ( θ ) ] = 3 2 4 = 6 . ; \frac{1}{2} xy sin(\pi - \theta) = \frac{1}{2} xy sin(\theta) = \frac{1}{2} x(\frac{3}{2} x) sin(\theta) = \frac{3}{2} \cdot [\frac{1}{2} x^2 sin(\theta)] = \frac{3}{2} \cdot 4 = \boxed{6}.;

Marta Reece
Dec 23, 2017

The triangles ABP and DCP are similar. We can pick base of DCP to be 6 (relative distribution of the area makes no difference) and get a height of 3.

To be similar, base of ABP has to be 4 and height 2.

The area of BCP can be calculated as half of height 5, obtained as 2+3, times the horizontal "base" going from P left to line BC.

The base is obtained by taking 2/5 of the difference DC - AB and adding it to AB. Then taking half of that. We obtain 2.4.

Area of B C P = 1 2 × 2.4 × 5 = 6 BCP =\frac12\times 2.4\times5=\boxed6

Would you please clarify your "relative distribution of area " method?

Prokash Shakkhar - 3 years, 5 months ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...