2001 AMC 12 Problems/Problem 10

Problem

The plane is tiled by congruent squares and congruent pentagons as indicated. The percent of the plane that is enclosed by the pentagons is closest to

$\text{(A) }50 \qquad \text{(B) }52 \qquad \text{(C) }54 \qquad \text{(D) }56 \qquad \text{(E) }58$

$[asy] unitsize(3mm); defaultpen(linewidth(0.8pt)); path p1=(0,0)--(3,0)--(3,3)--(0,3)--(0,0); path p2=(0,1)--(1,1)--(1,0); path p3=(2,0)--(2,1)--(3,1); path p4=(3,2)--(2,2)--(2,3); path p5=(1,3)--(1,2)--(0,2); path p6=(1,1)--(2,2); path p7=(2,1)--(1,2); path[] p=p1^^p2^^p3^^p4^^p5^^p6^^p7; for(int i=0; i<3; ++i) { for(int j=0; j<3; ++j) { draw(shift(3*i,3*j)*p); } } [/asy]$

Solution

Consider any single tile:

$[asy] unitsize(1cm); defaultpen(linewidth(0.8pt)); path p1=(0,0)--(3,0)--(3,3)--(0,3)--(0,0); path p2=(0,1)--(1,1)--(1,0); path p3=(2,0)--(2,1)--(3,1); path p4=(3,2)--(2,2)--(2,3); path p5=(1,3)--(1,2)--(0,2); path p6=(1,1)--(2,2); path p7=(2,1)--(1,2); path[] p=p1^^p2^^p3^^p4^^p5^^p6^^p7; draw(p); [/asy]$

If the side of the small square is $a$ , then the area of the tile is $9a^2$ , with $4a^2$ covered by squares and $5a^2$ by pentagons. Hence exactly $5/9$ of any tile are covered by pentagons, and therefore pentagons cover $5/9$ of the plane. When expressed as a percentage, this is $55.\overline{5}\%$ , and the closest integer to this value is $\boxed{56}$ .

2001 AMC 12 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 9	Followed by Problem 11
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

Page

Toolbox

Search

2001 AMC 12 Problems/Problem 10

Problem

Solution

See Also