2009 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 14
- The following problem is from both the 2009 AMC 10B #17 and 2009 AMC 12B #14, so both problems redirect to this page.
Problem
Five unit squares are arranged in the coordinate plane as shown, with the lower left corner at the origin. The slanted line, extending from 
to 
, divides the entire region into two regions of equal area. What is 
?
![[asy] unitsize(1cm); defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(8pt)); fill((2/3,0)--(3,3)--(3,1)--(2,1)--(2,0)--cycle,gray); xaxis("$x$",-0.5,4,EndArrow(HookHead,4)); yaxis("$y$",-0.5,4,EndArrow(4)); draw((0,1)--(3,1)--(3,3)--(2,3)--(2,0)); draw((1,0)--(1,2)--(3,2)); draw((2/3,0)--(3,3)); label("$(a,0)$",(2/3,0),S); label("$(3,3)$",(3,3),NE); [/asy]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/6/b/c/6bc7311ff3d3544995cdcaf4af10e95b690b3f22.png)
Solution
For 
the shaded area is at most 
, which is too little. Hence 
, and therefore the point 
is indeed inside the shaded part, as shown in the picture.
Then the area of the shaded part is one less than the area of the triangle with vertices , 
, and . Its area is obviously 
, therefore the area of the shaded part is 
.
The entire figure has area 
, hence we want the shaded part to have area 
. Solving for , we get 
. The answer is 
.
See Also
| 2009 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
| Preceded by Problem 16 |
Followed by Problem 18 | |
| 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 | ||
| 2009 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
| Preceded by Problem 13 |
Followed by Problem 15 |
| 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. 
