2019 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 10

In a given plane, points $A$ and $B$ are $10$ units apart. How many points $C$ are there in the plane such that the perimeter of $\triangle ABC$ is $50$ units and the area of $\triangle ABC$ is $100$ square units?

$\textbf{(A) }0\qquad\textbf{(B) }2\qquad\textbf{(C) }4\qquad\textbf{(D) }8\qquad\textbf{(E) }\text{infinitely many}$

Solution

Notice that whatever point we pick for C, AB will be the base of the triangle. WLOG, points A and B are (0,0) and (0,10) [notice that for any other combination of points, we can just rotate the plane to be the same thing]. When we pick point C, we have to make sure the y value of C is 20, because that's the only way the area of the triangle can be 100.

We figure that the one thing we need to test to see if there is such a triangle is when the perimeter is minimized, and the value of C is (x, 20). Thus, we put C in the middle, so point C is (5, 20). We can easily see that AC and BC will both be $\sqrt{20^2+5^2} \Rightarrow \sqrt{425}$ . The perimeter of this minimized triangle is $2\sqrt{425} + 10$ , which is larger than 50. Since the minimized perimeter is greater than 50, there is no triangle that satisfies the condition, giving us $\boxed{A) 0}$

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2019 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 10

Solution