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Difference between revisions of "2008 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 23"

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A rectangular floor measures <math>a</math> by<math> b</math> feet, where <math>a</math> and <math>b</math> are positive integers and <math>b > a</math>. An artist paints a rectangle on the floor with the sides of the rectangle parallel to the floor. The unpainted part of the floor forms a border of width <math>1</math> foot around the painted rectangle and occupies half the area of the whole floor. How many possibilities are there for the ordered pair <math>(a,b)</math>?
 
A rectangular floor measures <math>a</math> by<math> b</math> feet, where <math>a</math> and <math>b</math> are positive integers and <math>b > a</math>. An artist paints a rectangle on the floor with the sides of the rectangle parallel to the floor. The unpainted part of the floor forms a border of width <math>1</math> foot around the painted rectangle and occupies half the area of the whole floor. How many possibilities are there for the ordered pair <math>(a,b)</math>?
  
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<math>\text{A) 1  B) 2  C) 3  D) 4    E) 5}</math>
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<math>\text{(A) 1  (B) 2  (C) 3  (D) 4    (E) 5}</math>
  
 
==Solution==
 
==Solution==

Revision as of 00:19, 1 February 2015

Problem

A rectangular floor measures $a$ by$b$ feet, where $a$ and $b$ are positive integers and $b > a$. An artist paints a rectangle on the floor with the sides of the rectangle parallel to the floor. The unpainted part of the floor forms a border of width $1$ foot around the painted rectangle and occupies half the area of the whole floor. How many possibilities are there for the ordered pair $(a,b)$?

$\text{(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4 (E) 5}$

Solution

Because the unpainted part of the floor covers half the area, then the painted rectangle covers half the area as well. Since the border width is 1 foot, the dimensions of the rectangle are $a-2$ by $b-2$. With this information we can make the equation:

\begin{eqnarray*} ab &=& 2\left((a-2)(b-2)\right) \\ ab &=& 2ab - 4a - 4b + 8 \\ ab - 4a - 4b + 8 &=& 0 \end{eqnarray*} Applying Simon's Favorite Factoring Trick, we get

\begin{eqnarray*}ab - 4a - 4b + 16 &=& 8 \\ (a-4)(b-4) &=& 8 \end{eqnarray*}

Since $b > a$, then we have the possibilities $(a-4) = 1$ and $(b-4) = 8$, or $(a-4) = 2$ and $(b-4) = 4$. This gives 2 possibilities: (5,12) or (6,8), So the answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(B) 2}}$

See also

2008 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by
Problem 22 		Followed by
Problem 24
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

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