2019 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 24

Problem

Let $\omega=-\tfrac{1}{2}+\tfrac{1}{2}i\sqrt3.$ Let $S$ denote all points in the complex plane of the form $a+b\omega+c\omega^2,$ where $0\leq a \leq 1,0\leq b\leq 1,$ and $0\leq c\leq 1.$ What is the area of $S$ ? $\textbf{(A) } \frac{1}{2}\sqrt3 \qquad\textbf{(B) } \frac{3}{4}\sqrt3 \qquad\textbf{(C) } \frac{3}{2}\sqrt3\qquad\textbf{(D) } \frac{1}{2}\pi\sqrt3 \qquad\textbf{(E) } \pi$

Solution

Let $\omega=e^{\frac{2i\pi}{3}}$ be the third root of unity. We wish to find the span of $a+b\omega+c\omega^2)$ for reals $0\le a,b,c\le 1$ . Note that if $a,b,c>0$ , then $a-\min(a,b,c), b-\min(a,b,c), c-\min(a,b,c)$ forms the same point as $a,b,c$ . Therefore, assume that at least one of them is equal to $0$ . If only one of them is equal to zero, we can form an equilateral triangle with the remaining two, of side length $1$ . Similarly for if two are equal to zero. So the area of the six equilateral triangles is $\boxed{\text{(C) }\frac{3\sqrt{3}}{2}}$

Here is a diagram: $[asy] size(200,200); draw((0,0)--(1,0)--(1/2,sqrt(3)/2)--cycle); draw((0,0)--(1/2,sqrt(3)/2)--(-1/2,sqrt(3)/2)--cycle); draw((0,0)--(-1/2,sqrt(3)/2)--(-1,0)--cycle); draw((0,0)--(-1,0)--(-1/2,-sqrt(3)/2)--cycle); draw((0,0)--(-1/2,-sqrt(3)/2)--(1/2,-sqrt(3)/2)--cycle); draw((0,0)--(1/2,-sqrt(3)/2)--(1,0)--cycle); draw((-2,0)--(2,0)); draw((0,-2)--(0,2)); [/asy]$

-programjames1

2019 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 23	Followed by Problem 25
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 12 Problems and Solutions

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.

Page

Toolbox

Search

2019 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 24

Problem

Solution

See Also