2015 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 19

Problem

The isosceles right triangle $ABC$ has right angle at $C$ and area $12.5$ . The rays trisecting $\angle ACB$ intersect $AB$ at $D$ and $E$ . What is the area of $\bigtriangleup CDE$ ?

$\textbf{(A) }\dfrac{5\sqrt{2}}{3}\qquad\textbf{(B) }\dfrac{50\sqrt{3}-75}{4}\qquad\textbf{(C) }\dfrac{15\sqrt{3}}{8}\qquad\textbf{(D) }\dfrac{50-25\sqrt{3}}{2}\qquad\textbf{(E) }\dfrac{25}{6}$

Solution 1

$\triangle ADC$ can be split into a $45-45-90$ right triangle and a $30-60-90$ right triangle by dropping a perpendicular from $D$ to side $AC$ . Let $F$ be where that perpendicular intersects $AC$ .

Because the side lengths of a $45-45-90$ right triangle are in ratio $a:a:a\sqrt{2}$ , $DF = AF$ .

Because the side lengths of a $30-60-90$ right triangle are in ratio $a:a\sqrt{3}:2a$ and $AF$ + $FC = 5$ , $DF = \frac{5 - AF}{\sqrt{3}}$ .

Setting the two equations for $DF$ equal to each other, $AF = \frac{5 - AF}{\sqrt{3}}$ .

Solving gives $AF = DF = \frac{5\sqrt{3} - 5}{2}$ .

Note: another way to get DF is that you assume AF=DF to be equal to a, as previously mentioned, and CF is equal to $a\sqrt{3}$ . $AF+DF=5=a+a\sqrt{3}$

The area of $\triangle ADC = \frac12 \cdot DF \cdot AC = \frac{25\sqrt{3} - 25}{4}$ .

$\triangle ADC$ is congruent to $\triangle BEC$ , so their areas are equal.

A triangle's area can be written as the sum of the figures that make it up, so $[ABC] = [ADC] + [BEC] + [CDE]$ .

$\frac{25}{2} = \frac{25\sqrt{3} - 25}{4} + \frac{25\sqrt{3} - 25}{4} + [CDE]$ .

Solving gives $[CDE] = \frac{50 - 25\sqrt{3}}{2}$ , so the answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(D) }\frac{50 - 25\sqrt{3}}{2}}$

Solution 2

The area of $\triangle ABC$ is $12.5$ , and so the leg length of $45 - 45 - 90$ $\triangle ABC$ is $5.$ Thus, the altitude to hypotenuse $AB$ , $CF$ , has length $\dfrac{5}{\sqrt{2}}$ by $45 - 45 - 90$ right triangles. Now, it is clear that $\angle{ACD} = \angle{BCE} = 30^\circ$ , and so by the Exterior Angle Theorem, $\triangle{CDE}$ is an isosceles $30 - 75 - 75$ triangle. Thus, $DF = CF \tan 15^\circ = \dfrac{5}{\sqrt{2}} (2 - \sqrt{3})$ by the Half-Angle formula, and so the area of $\triangle CDE$ is $DF \cdot CF = \dfrac{25}{2} (2 - \sqrt{3})$ . The answer is thus $\boxed{\textbf{(D) } \frac{50 - 25\sqrt{3}}{2}}$

Solution 3

Because the area of triangle $ABC$ is $12.5$ , and the triangle is right and isosceles, we can quickly see that the leg length of the triangle $ABC$ is 5. If we put the triangle on the coordinate plane, with vertex $C$ at the origin, and the hypotenuse in the first quadrant, we can use slope-intercept form and tangents to get three lines that intersect at the origin, $D$ , and $E$ . Then, you can use the distance formula to get the length of $DE$ . The height is just $\frac{5}{\sqrt{2}}$ , so the area is just $DE \cdot \frac{5}{\sqrt{2}} \cdot \frac{1}{2}=\boxed{\textbf{(D) } \frac{50 - 25\sqrt{3}}{2}}$

Solution 4

Just like with Solution 1, we drop a perpendicular from $D$ onto $AC$ , splitting it into a $30$ - $60$ - $90$ triangle and a $45$ - $45$ - $90$ triangle. We find that $AF=\frac{5\sqrt{3}-5}{2}$ .

Now, since $\triangle AEC\cong \triangle BDC$ by ASA, $CE=CD$ . Since, $DF=\frac{5\sqrt{3}-5}{2}$ , $DC=2\cdot \frac{5\sqrt{3}-5}{2}=5\sqrt{3}-5$ . By the sine area formula, $[CDE]=\frac{1}{2}\cdot \sin 30\cdot CD^2=\frac{1}{4}\cdot (100-50\sqrt{3})=\frac{50-25\sqrt{3}}{2}\implies \boxed{\textbf{(D)}}$

2015 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 18	Followed by Problem 20
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