2011 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 18

Problem

Rectangle $ABCD$ has $AB = 6$ and $BC = 3$ . Point $M$ is chosen on side $AB$ so that $\angle AMD = \angle CMD$ . What is the degree measure of $\angle AMD$ ?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 15 \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 30 \qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 45 \qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 60 \qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 75$

Solution

$[asy] unitsize(10mm); defaultpen(linewidth(.5pt)+fontsize(10pt)); dotfactor=3; pair A=(0,3), B=(6,3), C=(6,0), D=(0,0); pair M=(0.80385,3); draw(A--B--C--D--cycle); draw(M--C); draw(M--D); draw(anglemark(A,M,D)); draw(anglemark(D,M,C)); draw(anglemark(C,D,M)); pair[] ps={A,B,C,D,M}; dot(ps); label("$A$",A,NW); label("$B$",B,NE); label("$C$",C,SE); label("$D$",D,SW); label("$M$",M,N); label("$6$",midpoint(C--M),SW); label("$6$",midpoint(A--B),N); label("$3$",midpoint(B--C),E); [/asy]$

It is given that $\angle AMD \cong \angle CMD$ . Since $\angle AMD$ and $\angle CDM$ are alternate interior angles and $\overline{AB} \parallel \overline{DC}$ , $\angle AMD \cong \angle CDM \longrightarrow \angle CMD \cong \angle CDM$ . Use the Base Angle Theorem to show $\overline{DC} \cong \overline{MC}$ . We know that $ABCD$ is a rectangle, so it follows that $\overline{MC} = 6$ . We notice that $\triangle BMC$ is a $30-60-90$ triangle, and $\angle BMC = 30^{\circ}$ . If we let $x$ be the measure of $\angle AMD,$ then $\begin{align*} 2x + 30 &= 180\\ 2x &= 150\\ x &= \boxed{\textbf{(E)} 75} \end{align*}$

2011 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 17	Followed by Problem 19
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2011 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 18

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