50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

PROBLEMS

Problem 1: ABCD is a square with the side length of a. Half circles are drawn inside the
square with BC and CD as diameters, respectively. Find the shaded area.

Problem 2: As shown in the figure, circle O has the radius of 1. The inscribed angle
ABC = 30. Find the shaded area.

Problem 3: As shown in the figure, isosceles right triangle ABC with BC = 8 cm. BDC is
a half circle with the diameter BC. Find the sum of two shaded areas I and II.

Problem 4: Two diameters of circle O are perpendicular. Using AO, BO, CO, and DO as
diameters to draw circles as shown in the figure. Show that the areas
of four regions inside the big circle but outside the small circles equal
the areas of four regions shared by every two small circles.

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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

Problem 5: Two squares with the side lengths of 10 cm and 12 cm, respectively. Find the
shaded area.

Problem 6: (1983 AMC #28) Triangle ABC in the figure has area 10. Points D, E, and F,
all distinct from A, B, and C, are on sides AB, BC and CA respectively, and
AD = 2, DB = 3. If triangle ABE and quadrilateral DBEF have equal areas,
find that area.

Problem 7: D, E, and F are three vertices of rhombus BFDE which are on the sides AC,
AB, and BC of triangle ABC, respectively, as shown in the figure. If AB
= a and BC = b, find the perimeter of the rhombus BFDE.

Problem 8: As shown in the figure, trapezoid ABCD has the area of S. AB = b, CD = a

with a < b and AB//CD. Two diagonals meet at O. The area of BOC
2 a
is S . Find .
9 b

Problem 9: In ABC, D is the midpoint of side BC, E is the midpoint of AD, F is the
midpoint of BE, and G is the midpoint of FC. What part of the area of ABC
is the area of EFG?

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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

Problem 10: As shown in the figure, ABC is divided into six smaller triangles by lines
drawn from the vertices through a common interior point. The areas of
four of these triangles are as indicated. Find the area ABC.

Problem 11. (1988 AIME) Let P be an interior point of ABC and extend lines from the
vertices through P to the opposite sides. Let a, b, c, and d
denote the lengths of the segments indicated in the figure. Find
the product abc if a + b + c = 43 and d = 3.

Problem 12: (1997 China Middle School Math Competition) As shown in the figure, P is
a point inside the equilateral triangle ABC. The distances from P o each
side are PD = 1, PE = 3, and PF = 5. Find the area of the equilateral
triangle ABC.

Problem 13: The area of ABC is 60. As shown in the figure, E and F trisect BC. D is
the midpoint of CA. BD intersects AE at G, AF at H. Find the area of
quadrilateral AGH.

Problem 14: (2001 AMC 12) In rectangle ABCD, points F and G lie on AB so that AF =
FG = GB and E is the midpoint of DC. Also, AC intersects EF at H
and EG at J. The area of rectangle ABCD is 70. Find the area of
triangle EHJ.

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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

Problem 15: As shown in the figure, D, E, and F are points on BC, CA, and AB of an
acute triangle ABC. AD, BE, and CF meet at P. AP = BP = CP = 6.
If PD = x, PE = y, PF = z, and xy + yz + zx = 28. Find the value of
xyz.

Problem 16: As shown in the figure, ABCD is a rectangle. BD is the diagonal. AE and
CF are perpendicular to BD. Find the area of ABCD if BE = 1, and EF = 2.
4 3 , (B) 3 5 (C) 6 (D) Undetermined.

Problem 17: As shown in the figure, ABCD is a square. Find the shaded area.
290
(A)17 (B) (C)18 (D)10 3
17

Problem 18: As shown in the figure, the area of parallelogram ABCD is 1. E and F are
the midpoints of AB and BC, respectively. AF meets CE at G and DE
at H. Find the area of  EGH.

Problem 19: M is the centroid of ABC. AM = 3, MB = 4, MC = 5. Find the area of

ABC.

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 50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

Problem 20: (1984 AIME) A point P is chosen in the interior of ABC so that when
lines are drawn through P parallel to the sides of ABC , the resulting smaller triangles,
t1, t2 and t3 in the figure, have areas 4, 9 and 49, respectively. Find the area of ABC.

Problem 21: As shown in the figure, in ABC, points D, E, and F are on BC, AC, and
AB, respectively. AD, BE, and CF meet at G. BD = 2CD. The area
S1 = 3, and S2 = 4. Find SABC, the area of  ABC.

1 1 1
Problem 22: As shown in the figure, SABC  1. AD = AB, BE = BC and CF = CA.
3 3 3
CD, AE, BF meet pair wisely at X, Y, and Z. Find the area of XYZ.

Problem 23: For triangle ABC, extend AB to F such that AB = BF, extend BC to D such
that BC = CD, and extend CA to E such that CA = AE. The ratio of the area of triangle
ABC to the area of triangle DEF is 1/7.

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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS

Problem 1: Solution:

Draw OM  CD, ON  BC through O, the center of the square.

The unshaded area consists of one smaller square and two quarter circles.

1 1 a (6   ) a 2
The shaded area is S, and S = a 2  [( a) 2  2   ( ) 2 ] 
2 4 2 8
Problem 2: Solution:
Connect CO to meet the circle at D. Connect AD and AO.

We see that AOC = 60.

The shaded are is the same as the area of the sector OAC – the area of
1 3
OAC =  
6 4
Problem 3: Solution:
Connect CD. Triangle CDB is also an isosceles right triangle with CD
= BD. So I and III have the same areas.
We also see that D is the midpoint of AB. Therefore the sum of the
1 1 1
shaded areas is SABC    82  16
2 2 2
Problem 4: Solution:
We label each region as shown in the figure.
We have:

2 x  y  a
 2
(1)

4 x  4 y  4 z   (2a)
 2
(2)

4 × (1) – (2): 4x – 4z = 0  4x = 4z

Problem 5: Solution: 50.

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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

We connect BF and we know that AC//BF. So the area of triangle ABH is the same as the
area of triangle CHF (Theorem 4(a)).
The shaded area is the area of triangle ACF, which is the same as the
area of triangle ABC, which is 10  10  2 = 50.

Problem 6: Solution: 6.
Since triangle ABE and quadrilateral DBEF have equal areas, we know that triangle ADG
has the same area as triangle EFG (Theorem 4(b)).

Therefore, AF//DE and ABC is similar to DBE.

AD DB 2 3 2 CE 2 SACE
      
CE BE CE BE 3 BE 3 SABE

3
SABE   10  6 .
3 2
Problem 7: Solution:
Let the side of the rhombus be x.
We write the equation of the areas:
ABC = AED + DFC + SBFDE.
Since AED = DFC = B, we have:
1 1 1
acsin B = x(c  x) sin B + x(a  x) sin B + x2sinB.
2 2 2
2
ac = x(c – x) + x(a – x) + 2x = (a + c)x.
ac
Solving for x: x = .
ac
4ac
Therefore the perimeter is .
ac
Problem 8: Solution:

Let the areas of DOC= S1 and AOB = S2.

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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

 5
S1  S 2  9 S ,

S S  ( 2 S ) 2 .
 1 2 9
 4  1
S1  9 S , S1  9 S ,
Solving we get  or 
S  1 S . S  4 S .
 2 9  2 9
a S1 1
Since, a < b, S1  S2 . Therefore   .
b S2 2
Problem 9: Solution: 1/8.
1
Draw EC. Since the altitude of BEC is the altitude of BAC, and both
2
1
triangles share the same base, the area of BEC = area of
2
1 1
BAC. Area of EFC = area of BEC, and area of EGF = area of
2 2
1
EFC; therefore area of EGF = area of BEC. Thus, since area of
4
1 1
BEC = area of ABC, area of EGF = area of ABC.
2 8
Problem 10: Solution: 315.
Let x and y be the areas for the small triangles as shown in the figure.
S ABO S BOD 84  x 40
  
S ACO S COD 70  y 30
S S 84  x 70
Similarly, we have ABO  AEO  
S BCO S CEO 40  30 y
70  y 3 70
Or  .
70 4 y

x = 56 and y = 35. The total area is 84 + 70 + 40 + 30 + 35 + 56 = 315.

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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

Problem 11. Solution:

By Theorem 9, we have
S BPC d
= (1)
S BAC d a
S CPA d
= (2)
S CBA d b
S APB d
= (3)
S ACB d c
We also know that SBPC + SCPA + SAPB = SABC
d d d
Adding (1), (2), and (3), we get: + + = 1.
d a d b d c
Simplifying into: 2d 3 + (a + b + c)d 2 – abc = 0.

Therefore abc = 2d 3 + (a + b + c)d 2 = 2 × 32 + 43 × 32 = 441.

Problem 12: Solution:

Connect PD, PE, and PF.
1 9
We have SABC = (PD + PE + PF)  BC = BC.
2 2
1 1
We know that SBPC = PD  BC = BC.
2 2
PD S 1
Let the height on BC be h. We have = PBC = .
h S ABC 9
So we get h = 9.
2 3
Then the side of triangle ABC is 9  6 3.
3
3
Therefore SABC =  (6 3 ) 2  27 3 .
4

Problem 13: Solution:

Connect FG and FD. Since AD = DC, EF = FC, we know that DF
is parallel to AE. SADH  SHFG .
1 2
We also know that SBDC  SABC  30 and SBFD  SBDC  20 .
2 3
1
Since BE = EF and DF // GE, BG = GD, SBEG  SBFD  5 , and
4
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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

1
SBEFG  SBEG  5 , and SBGA  SABE  SBEG  SABC  5  20  5  15 .
3
Let SAHG  a , SHdf  b , and SADH  c .
So c + b = 20 – 10 = 10, and a + c = 30 – 15 = 15.
a  c GH 15 3
From Theorem 8, we have    .
b  c HD 10 2
a 3
So by Theorem 6 we have   2a = 3c
c 2
We already know that a + c = 15. Therefore a = 9 and b = 6.

Problem 14: Solution: (C).

The area of triangle EFG is (1/6)(70) = 35/3.

Triangles AFH and CEH are similar, so 3/2 = EC/AF = EH/HF and
EH/EF = 3/5.

Triangles AGJ and CEJ are similar, so 3/4 = EC/AG = EJ/JG and
EJ/EG = 3/7.

Since the areas of the triangles that have a common altitude are proportional to their
bases, the ratio of the area of EHJ to the area of EHG is 3/7, and the ratio of the area
of EHG to that of EFG is 3/5.

Therefore, the ratio of the area of EHJ to the area of EFG is (3/5)(3/7) = 9/35.
Thus, the area of EHJ is (9/35)(35/3) = 3.

Problem 15: Solution:

Draw PMBC at M, ANBC at N.
1 1
We know that SPBC = PM  BC and SABC = AN  BC.
2 2
S PM PD x
Therefore PBC    .
S ABC AN AD x  6
S y S z
Similarly PAC  and PAB  .
SABC y  6 SABC z  6

Adding them together we get:

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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

x y z S  SPAC  SPAB
+ + = PBC =1 
x6 y6 z6 SABC
6 6 6 3 3 3
1– +1– +1– =1  + + = 1.
x6 y6 z6 x6 y6 z6

Simplifying:
3(yz + zx + xy) + 36(x + y + z) + 324 = xyz + 6(xy + yz + zx) + 36(x + y + z) + 216.
We are given that xy + yz + zx = 28.
Hence xyz = 108 – 3( xy + yz + zx) = 24.

Problem 16: Solution: (A).

Since AB = CD, ABD = CDB, RtABE  RtCDF.
 BE = DF.

We know that BE = 1, EF = 2.
 FD = 1, ED = EF + FD = 2 + 1 = 3
BD = BE + ED = 1 + 3 = 4.
AE2 = EB  DE = 1 × 3 = 3  AE = 3.
1
S ABCD = 2 SABD = 2  BD  AE = 4 3
2

Problem 17: Solution: (B).

Both BGDE and CHAF are parallelograms. PQRS is also a parallelogram.

Since ADE  BAF, DE = AF, ADE = BAF.

Therefore QPS = PAD + ADP = PAD + BAF = 90.

So PQRS is a rectangle.
In RtABF, AF = AB 2  BF 2  34 .
In parallelogram AFCH, S AFCH = FC × AB = AF × PS.
10
So PS  .
34
10
Similarly, PQ  .
34
50
So PQRS is a square. S PQRS  PS 2  .
17
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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

50 290
Therefore the shaded area is: S AFCH + S BGDE  S PQRS = 2 × 5 + 2 × 5   .
17 17

Problem 18: Solution:

Connect BG and DG.

1
Since SABF  SABC  SEBC , SAEG  SCFG .
2
1 1
Therefore SBEG  SAEG  SCFG  SBFG = S ABF = S ABC =
3 6
1 1
S ABCD = .
12 12
1 1
We also know that SADG + S BCG = S ABCD . So SADG = .
2 3
1
HE S AEH S GEH SAEH  SGEH S AEG 1
So = = = = = 12  .
DH S ADH S GDH SADH  SGDH S ADG 1 4
3
1 1 1 1
SAEH = SDAE = × ( S ABCD ) = .
5 5 4 20
1 1 1
Therefore SEGH  SAEG  S AEH    .
12 20 30

Problem 19: Solution:

Extend AD to G such that MD = DG. Connect CG.
So we have MG = 2MD = AM = 3, GC = BM = 4, and MC = 5.
So MGC = 90.
1
We also have SMGC  MG  GC = 6.
2
1
SMDC  SMGC  3
2
Thus ABC  6SMDC  18 .
S

Problem 20: Solution:

Let MP = P, PN = q, RT = r, AB = c, and the area of ABC be S.
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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

Three small triangles are similar to ABC. The ratio of the square roots of their areas is
the same as the ratio of their corresponding sides.
2 q
So we have  (1)
S c
3 p
 (2)
S c
7 r
 (3)
S c
Adding (1), (2), and (3) together we get:

23 7 p  q  r c
  1
S c c

Therefore S  12 and S = 144.

Note: S  t1 + t2 + t3

Problem 21: Solution:

S
Since BD = 2CD, 3  2 .
S2
So S3 = 8.
BG S2  S3
Therefore   4.
GE S1
S 4  S5
 4. (1)
S6
We also know that
S 4  S5 S3
  2, (2)
S6  S1 S 2
S  S1 S5 AF
And 6   (3)
S3  S 2 S4 FB
Solving the system of equations (1), (2), and (3), we have
S4 = 8, S5 = 4, S6 = 3.
So SABC  S1 + S2 + S3 + S4 + S5 + S6 = 3 + 4 + 8 + 8 + 4 + 3 = 30.

Problem 22: Solution:

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50 AMC Lectures Problems Book 1 (10) Area And Area Method

Connect CY and let SBEY  S .

S BE 1
Then we have YBE   .
SYBC BC 3
So SYBC  3S .
S CF S CF
Since YCF  and BCF  ,
SYAF FA SBAF FA
S BAY S  SYAF FA
= BAF =  2.
S BCY SBCF  SYCF CF
So SBAY  6S .
Therefore we have SABE  SBAY  SBEY  7S .
S 1
Since ABE  , SABC  21S  1 .
S ABC 3
1
So we get S = .
21
6 6
S BAY  . Similarly, we have SCAX  SBCZ  .
21 21
6 1
Therefore SXYZ  SABC  ( SBAY  SCAX  SBCZ ) = 1  3  .
21 7

Problem 23: Proof:

Connect FC, DA, and EB as shown in the figure. All the seven triangles have the same
areas.
Therefore, the ratio of the area of triangle ABC to the area of triangle DEF
is 1/7.

108