Difference between revisions of "2005 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 19"

Revision as of 20:02, 24 December 2020

Problem

Three one-inch squares are placed with their bases on a line. The center square is lifted out and rotated 45 degrees, as shown. Then it is centered and lowered into its original location until it touches both of the adjoining squares. How many inches is the point $B$ from the line on which the bases of the original squares were placed?

$[asy] unitsize(1inch); defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(8pt)); draw((0,0)--((1/3) + 3*(1/2),0)); fill(((1/6) + (1/2),0)--((1/6) + (1/2),(1/2))--((1/6) + 1,(1/2))--((1/6) + 1,0)--cycle, rgb(.7,.7,.7)); draw(((1/6),0)--((1/6) + (1/2),0)--((1/6) + (1/2),(1/2))--((1/6),(1/2))--cycle); draw(((1/6) + (1/2),0)--((1/6) + (1/2),(1/2))--((1/6) + 1,(1/2))--((1/6) + 1,0)--cycle); draw(((1/6) + 1,0)--((1/6) + 1,(1/2))--((1/6) + (3/2),(1/2))--((1/6) + (3/2),0)--cycle); draw((2,0)--(2 + (1/3) + (3/2),0)); draw(((2/3) + (3/2),0)--((2/3) + 2,0)--((2/3) + 2,(1/2))--((2/3) + (3/2),(1/2))--cycle); draw(((2/3) + (5/2),0)--((2/3) + (5/2),(1/2))--((2/3) + 3,(1/2))--((2/3) + 3,0)--cycle); label("$B$",((1/6) + (1/2),(1/2)),NW); label("$B$",((2/3) + 2 + (1/4),(29/30)),NNE); draw(((1/6) + (1/2),(1/2)+0.05)..(1,.8)..((2/3) + 2 + (1/4)-.05,(29/30)),EndArrow(HookHead,3)); fill(((2/3) + 2 + (1/4),(1/4))--((2/3) + (5/2) + (1/10),(1/2) + (1/9))--((2/3) + 2 + (1/4),(29/30))--((2/3) + 2 - (1/10),(1/2) + (1/9))--cycle, rgb(.7,.7,.7)); draw(((2/3) + 2 + (1/4),(1/4))--((2/3) + (5/2) + (1/10),(1/2) + (1/9))--((2/3) + 2 + (1/4),(29/30))--((2/3) + 2 - (1/10),(1/2) + (1/9))--cycle);[/asy]$

$\textbf{(A)}\ 1\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ \sqrt{2}\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ \frac{3}{2}\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ \sqrt{2}+\frac{1}{2}\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 2$

Solution

Consider the rotated middle square shown in the figure. It will drop until length $DE$ is 1 inch. Then, because $DEC$ is a $45^{\circ}-45^{\circ}-90^{\circ}$ triangle, $EC=\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}$ , and $FC=\frac{1}{2}$ . We know that $BC=\sqrt{2}$ , so the distance from $B$ to the line is

$BC-FC+1=\sqrt{2}-\frac{1}{2}+1=\sqrt{2}+\dfrac{1}{2}$ $(D)$ .

Solution Add-On

(Refer to Diagram Above)

After deducing that $BC=\sqrt{2}$ , we can observe that the length from $C$ to the baseline is $\frac{1}{2}$ . This can be obtained by subtracting $FC$ from the side length of the square(s), which is $1$ .

Adding these up, we see that our answer is $(D)$ $\sqrt{2}+\dfrac{1}{2}$ .

sdk652

No Time Solution

(Refer to diagram in Solution 1)

@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 sdk652
+== No Time Solution ==
+(Refer to diagram in Solution 1)
 ==See Also==

2005 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 18	Followed by Problem 20
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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