2015 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 25

Problem

A bee starts flying from point $P_0$ . She flies $1$ inch due east to point $P_1$ . For $j \ge 1$ , once the bee reaches point $P_j$ , she turns $30^{\circ}$ counterclockwise and then flies $j+1$ inches straight to point $P_{j+1}$ . When the bee reaches $P_{2015}$ she is exactly $a \sqrt{b} + c \sqrt{d}$ inches away from $P_0$ , where $a$ , $b$ , $c$ and $d$ are positive integers and $b$ and $d$ are not divisible by the square of any prime. What is $a+b+c+d$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\; 2016 \qquad\textbf{(B)}\; 2024 \qquad\textbf{(C)}\; 2032 \qquad\textbf{(D)}\; 2040 \qquad\textbf{(E)}\; 2048$

Solution 1

Let $x=e^{i\pi/6}$ , a $30^\circ$ counterclockwise rotation centered at the origin. Notice that $P_k$ on the complex plane is:

$1+2x+3x^2+\cdots+(k+1)x^k$

We need to find the magnitude of $P_{2015}$ on the complex plane. This is an arithmetico-geometric series.

$\begin{align*} S &=1+2x+3x^2+\cdots+2015x^{2014} \\ xS &=x+2x^2+3x^3+\cdots+2015x^{2015} \\ (1-x)S &=1+x+x^2+\cdots+x^{2014}-2015x^{2015} \\ S &= \frac{1-x^{2015}}{(1-x)^2}-\frac{2015x^{2015}}{1-x} \end{align*}$

We want to find $|S|$ . First, note that $x^{2015}=x^{11}=x^{-1}$ because $x^{12}=1$ . Therefore

$S =\frac{1-\frac{1}{x}}{(1-x)^2}-\frac{2015}{x(1-x)}=-\frac{1}{x(1-x)}-\frac{2015}{x(1-x)}=-\frac{2016}{x(1-x)}.$

Hence, since $|x|=1$ , we have $|S| = \frac{2016}{|1-x|}.$

Now we just have to find $|1-x|$ . This can just be computed directly:

$1-x=1-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}-\frac{1}{2}i$

$|1-x|^2=\left(1-\sqrt{3}+\frac{3}{4}\right)+\frac{1}{4}=2-\sqrt{3}={\left(\frac{\sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}}{2}\right)}^2$

$|1-x|=\frac{\sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}}{2}$

Therefore $|S|=2016\cdot\frac{2}{\sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}}=2016\left(\frac{\sqrt{6}+\sqrt{2}}{2}\right)=1008\sqrt{2}+1008 \sqrt{6}$ .

Thus the answer is $1008+2+1008+6=\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\; 2024}$ .

Solution 2

Here is an alternate solution that does not use complex numbers:

The distance from $P_{2015}$ to $P_0$ can be evaluated using the Pythagorean theorem. Assuming $P_0$ lies at the origin, we can calculate the distance the bee traveled to $P_{2015}$ by evaluating the distance the bee traveled in the x-direction and the y-direction. Let's start by summing each movement:

$x=1\cos{0}+2\cos{30}+3\cos{60}+\cdots+2014\cos{270}+2015\cos{300}$

A movement of $p$ units at $q$ degrees is the same thing as a movement of $-p$ units at $q-180$ degrees, so we can adjust all the cosines with arguments greater than $180$ as follows:

$x=1\cos{0}+2\cos{30}+3\cos{60}+4\cos{90}+5\cos{120}+6\cos{150}-7\cos{0}-8\cos{30}-\cdots-2015\cos{120}$

Grouping terms with like-cosines and factoring out the cosines:

$x=(1-7+13-\cdots+2005-2011)\cos{0}+\cdots+(6-12+18-\cdots-2004+2010)\cos{150}$

Each sum in the parentheses has $336$ terms (except the very last one, which has $335$ ). By pairing each term, we see there are $\frac{336}{2}$ pairs of $-6$ . Therefore, each sum equals $168\cdot-6=-1008$ except the very last sum, which has $167$ pairs of $-6$ plus an extra 2010 and equals $167\cdot-6+2010=1008$ . Plugging in these values:

$x=-1008\cos{0}-1008\cos{30}-1008\cos{60}-1008\cos{90}-1008\cos{120}+1008\cos{150}$ $x=1008(-1-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}-\frac{1}{2}-0+\frac{1}{2}-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2})=-1008(1+\sqrt{3})$

We can find how far the bee traveled in the y-direction using the same logic as above, we arrive at the sum:

$y=-1008\sin{0}-1008\sin{30}-1008\sin{60}-1008\sin{90}-1008\sin{120}+1008\sin{150}$

$y=1008(0-\frac{1}{2}-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}-1-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}+\frac{1}{2})=-1008(1+\sqrt{3})$

Finally, we use the Pythagorean to find the distance from $P_0$ . This distance is given by:

$\sqrt{x^2+y^2}=\sqrt{(-1008(1+\sqrt{3}))^2+(-1008(1+\sqrt{3}))^2}=\sqrt{2\cdot1008^2\cdot(1+\sqrt{3})^2}=1008(1+\sqrt{3})\sqrt{2}=1008\sqrt{2}+1008\sqrt{6}$ , so the answer is $1008+2+1008+6=\boxed{\textbf{(B) }2024}$ .

Solution 3

We first notice that if the bee is turning 30 degrees each turn, it will take 12 turns to be looking in the same direction when the bee initially left. This means we simply need to answer the question; how far will the bee be when the bee is facing in the same direction?

First we use the fact that after 3 turns, the bee will be facing in a direction perpendicular to the the initial direction. From here we can draw a perpendicular from $P_2$ to the line $\overline{P_0P_1}$ intersecting a point $C_0$ . We will also place the point $C_1$ at the intersection of $\overline{P_0P_1}$ and $\overline{P_3P_4}$ . In addition, the point $C_2$ is placed at the perpendicular dropped from $P_2$ to the line $\overline{P_3C_1}$ . We will also set the distance $\overline{P_0P_1} = n$ and thus $\overline{P_1P_2} = n+1$ . With this perpendicular we see that the triangle $\triangle{P_1P_2C_0}$ is a 30-60-90 triangle. This means that the length $\overline{P_1C_0} = \frac{(n+1)\sqrt{3}}{2}$ and the length $\overline{C_1C_2} = \frac{n+1}{2}$ . We can also see that the triangle $\triangle{P_2C_1P_3}$ is a 30-60-90 triangle and thus $\overline{C_0C_1} = \frac{n+2}{2}$ and $\overline{C_2P_3} = \frac{(n+2)\sqrt{3}}{2}$ . Now if we continue this across all $P_i$ and set the point $P_0$ to the coordinates $(0, 0)$ . As you can see, we are inherently putting a “box” around the figure. Doing similar calculations for all four “sides” of this spiral we get that the length

$\overline{P_0C_1} = n + \frac{(n+1)\sqrt{3}}{2} + \frac{n+2}{2}$ , $\overline{C_1C_4} = \frac{(n+1)}{2} + \frac{(n+2)\sqrt{3}}{2} + (n+3) + \frac{(n+4)\sqrt{3}}{2} + \frac{n+5}{2}$ , $\overline{C_4C_7} = \frac{(n+4)}{2} + \frac{(n+5)\sqrt{3}}{2} + (n+6) + \frac{(n+7)\sqrt{3}}{2} + \frac{n+8}{2}$ , $\overline{C_7C_{10}} = \frac{(n+7)}{2} + \frac{(n+8)\sqrt{3}}{2} + (n+9) + \frac{(n+10)\sqrt{3}}{2} + \frac{n+11}{2}$ , and finally $\overline{C_{10}P_{12}} = \frac{(n+10)}{2} + \frac{(n+11)\sqrt{3}}{2}$ .

Here the point $C_4$ is defined as the intersection of lines $\overline{P_3P_4}$ and $\overline{P_6P_7}$ . The point $C_7$ is defined as the intersection of lines $\overline{P_6P_7}$ and $\overline{P_9P_{10}}$ . Finally, the point $C_10$ is defined as the intersection of lines $\overline{P_{9}P_{10}}$ and $\overline{P_{12}P_{13}}$ . Note that our spiral stops at $P_{12}$ before the next spiral starts. Calculating the offset from the x and the y direction, we see that the offset, or the new point $P_{12}$ , is $({-6}, {-6}-12 \sqrt{3})$ . This is an interesting property that the points’ coordinate changes by a constant offset no matter what $n$ is. Since the new point’s subscript changes by 12 each time and we see that 2016 is divisible by 12, the point $P_{2016} = ({-168} \cdot {6}, {168} \cdot ({-6} \sqrt{3} {-12}))$ . Using similar 30-60-90 triangle properties, we see that $P_{2015} = ({-6} \cdot 168-1008 \sqrt{3}, 168({-6} \sqrt{3} - 12) + 1008)$ . Using the distance formula, the numbers cancel out nicely (1008 is divisible by 168, so take 168 when using the distance formula) and we see that the final answer is $(1008)(1+\sqrt{3})(\sqrt{2})$ which gives us a final answer of $\boxed{2024}$ .

-bowmanrocks32

Solution 4

Suppose that the bee makes a move of distance $i$ . After $6$ turns it will be facing the opposite direction and move $i+6$ units. Combining these opposite movements gives a total movement of $-6$ units in the original direction. This means that every $12$ moves, the bee will move $-6$ units in each direction of $0^\circ, 30^\circ, 60^\circ, 90^\circ, 120^\circ, 150^\circ$ .

We want to find the displacement vector for every $12$ moves. Factoring out the $-6$ for now (which flips the direction), we draw a quick diagram of one unit in each direction. $[asy] draw((0,0)--(1,0)--(1+sqrt(3)/2, 1/2)--(3/2+sqrt(3)/2, 1/2+sqrt(3)/2)--(3/2+sqrt(3)/2, 3/2+sqrt(3)/2)--(1+sqrt(3)/2, 3/2+sqrt(3))--(1, 2+sqrt(3)), EndArrow); draw((1,0)--(3/2+sqrt(3)/2, 0), dashed); draw((1,2+sqrt(3))--(3/2+sqrt(3)/2, 2+sqrt(3)), dashed); draw((3/2+sqrt(3)/2, 2+sqrt(3))--(3/2+sqrt(3)/2, 0), dashed); draw((1+sqrt(3)/2,0)--(1+sqrt(3)/2, 1/2)--(3/2+sqrt(3)/2, 1/2), dashed); draw((1+sqrt(3)/2,2+sqrt(3))--(1+sqrt(3)/2, 3/2+sqrt(3))--(3/2+sqrt(3)/2, 3/2+sqrt(3)), dashed); [/asy]$ Using the 30-60-90 triangles, it is clear that the displacement vector (factoring back in the $-6$ ) is $-6\left\langle 1, 2+\sqrt{3}\right\rangle$ .

To compute the distance to $P_{2015}$ , we can compute the position of $P_{2016}$ (a multiple of $12$ moves) and then subtract the vector from $P_{2015}$ to $P_{2016}$ .

The bee reaches $P_{2016}$ after $\frac{2016}{12} = 168$ sets of $12$ moves, so the total displacement vector to $P_{2016}$ is $168(-6)\left\langle 1, 2+\sqrt{3}\right\rangle = \left\langle -1008, -2006-1008\sqrt{3}\right\rangle$ .

The bee moves at an angle of $-30^\circ$ from $P_{2015}$ to $P_{2016}$ , so subtracting it means moving an angle of $150^\circ$ . Since the vector is $2016$ units long, by a 30-60-90 triangle, it is $\left\langle -1008\sqrt{3}, 1008\right\rangle$ .

Therefore the total displacement vector to $P_{2015}$ is $\left\langle -1008, -2006-1008\sqrt{3}\right\rangle + \left\langle -1008\sqrt{3}, 1008\right\rangle = \left\langle -1008-1008\sqrt{3}, -1008-1008\sqrt{3}\right\rangle$ . The displacement is thus $\sqrt{2}\left|-1008-1008\sqrt{3}\right| = 1008\sqrt{2}+1008\sqrt{6} \implies 1008+2+1008+6 = \boxed{\text{(B) }2024}$ .

Fun fact: The displacement to $P_{2016}$ is the same as for $P_{2015}$ .

Solution 5 (big complex bash)

Let $P_0$ be the origin. East would be the real axis in the positive direction. Then we can assign each $P_n$ a complex value. The displacement would then be the magnitude of the complex number.

Notice that after the $n$ th move the value of $P_n$ is $P_{n-1}+ne^{\frac{i(n-1)\pi}{6}}$ . Also notice that after six moves the bee is facing in the opposite direction. And because we have found a recursion, we can add these up.

Then we have $P_n=e^{0}+2e^{\frac{i\pi}{6}}+\cdots+2015e^{\frac{2014i\pi}{6}},$ and this becomes $(1-7+13-\cdots-2011)e^0+(2-8+\cdots-2012)e^{\frac{i\pi}{6}}+\cdots+(6-12+\cdots+2010)e^{\frac{5i\pi}{6}}.$

Simplifying, we have $-6\cdot168-6\cdot168e^{\frac{i\pi}{6}}-6\cdot168e^{\frac{2i\pi}{6}}-6\cdot168e^{\frac{3i\pi}{6}}-6\cdot168e^{\frac{4i\pi}{6}}-(2010-6\cdot167)e^{\frac{5i\pi}{6}},$ which eventually simplifies to $-1008-(2+\sqrt3)1008i,$ and this is a $15-75-90$ triangle which has ratios of $1:(2+\sqrt3):(\sqrt2+\sqrt6)$ so the magnitude is $1008\sqrt2+1008\sqrt6$ and the answer is $1008+2+1008+6=\boxed{\text{(B) }2024}$ .

~caroline2023

Solution 6

After each 12 moves, the bee will be facing the same direction as it started. Let $P_0$ be the origin and let $P_n$ (with $n$ divisible by $12$ ) be $(x,y)$ . We now notice that each of the move pairs with lengths $n+1$ / $n+7$ , $n+2$ / $n+8$ , $n+3$ / $n+9$ , $n+4$ / $n+10$ , $n+5$ / $n+11$ , $n+6$ / $n+12$ will move the bee 6 units in the directions corresponding to the moves with lengths $n+7$ , $n+8$ , $n+9$ , $n+10$ , $n+11$ , and $n+12$ . This equates to moving the bee from $(x,y)$ to $(x-6,y-12-6\sqrt{3})$ , a move that repeats every 12 moves. Since $\frac{2016}{12} = 168$ , we have that $P_(2016) = (-1008, -2016-1008\sqrt{3})$ . It follows that $P_(2015) = (-1008-1008\sqrt{3}, -1008-1008\sqrt{3})$ so the distance to $P_0$ is $1008(\sqrt{2} + \sqrt{6})$ so the answer is $1008 + 2 + 1008 + 6 = \boxed{\text{(B) } 2024}$ .

- bobjoebilly

2015 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 24	Followed by Last Problem
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All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

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