2001 AMC 12 Problems/Problem 20

Problem

Points $A = (3,9)$ , $B = (1,1)$ , $C = (5,3)$ , and $D=(a,b)$ lie in the first quadrant and are the vertices of quadrilateral $ABCD$ . The quadrilateral formed by joining the midpoints of $\overline{AB}$ , $\overline{BC}$ , $\overline{CD}$ , and $\overline{DA}$ is a square. What is the sum of the coordinates of point $D$ ?

$\text{(A) }7 \qquad \text{(B) }9 \qquad \text{(C) }10 \qquad \text{(D) }12 \qquad \text{(E) }16$

Solution

$[asy] pair A=(3,9), B=(1,1), C=(5,3), D=(7,3); draw(A--B--C--D--cycle); label("$A$",A,N); label("$B$",B,SW); label("$C$",C,S); label("$D$",D,E); [/asy]$

We already know two vertices of the square: $(A+B)/2 = (2,5)$ and $(B+C)/2 = (3,2)$ .

There are only two possibilities for the other vertices of the square: either they are $(6,3)$ and $(5,6)$ , or they are $(0,1)$ and $(-1,4)$ . The second case would give us $D$ outside the first quadrant, hence the first case is the correct one. As $(6,3)$ is the midpoint of $CD$ , we can compute $D=(7,3)$ , and $7+3=\boxed{10}$ .

2001 AMC 12 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 19	Followed by Problem 21
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2001 AMC 12 Problems/Problem 20

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