2022 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 25

Problem

Four regular hexagons surround a square with side length 1, each one sharing an edge with the square, as shown in the figure below. The area of the resulting 12-sided outer nonconvex polygon can be written as $m \sqrt{n} + p$ , where $m$ , $n$ , and $p$ are integers and $n$ is not divisible by the square of any prime. What is $m+n+p$ ?

$\textbf{(A) } -12 \qquad \textbf{(B) }-4 \qquad \textbf{(C) } 4 \qquad \textbf{(D) }24 \qquad \textbf{(E) }32$

Solution 1 (Coord bash)

$[asy] import geometry; unitsize(3cm); draw((0,0) -- (1,0) -- (1,1) -- (0,1) -- cycle); draw(shift((1/2,1-sqrt(3)/2))*polygon(6)); draw(shift((1/2,sqrt(3)/2))*polygon(6)); draw(shift((sqrt(3)/2,1/2))*rotate(90)*polygon(6)); draw(shift((1-sqrt(3)/2,1/2))*rotate(90)*polygon(6)); draw((0,1-sqrt(3))--(1,1-sqrt(3))--(3-sqrt(3),sqrt(3)-2)--(sqrt(3),0)--(sqrt(3),1)--(3-sqrt(3),3-sqrt(3))--(1,sqrt(3))--(0,sqrt(3))--(sqrt(3)-2,3-sqrt(3))--(1-sqrt(3),1)--(1-sqrt(3),0)--(sqrt(3)-2,sqrt(3)-2)--cycle,linewidth(2)); label("$O (0, 0)$",(0.5,0.5),S); dot((0.5,0.5)); label("$A$", (3-sqrt(3), 3-sqrt(3)), NE); label("$B$", (sqrt(3) - 2, 3-sqrt(3)), NW); [/asy]$

Let the center of the square be $O$ , the place on the border where the top and the right hexagons intersect $A$ , and the place on the border where the top and the left hexagons intersect $B$ . Let the origin be $O$ . We would like to find the coordinates of $A$ .

By symmetry, $A$ lies on the line $y = x$ . The equation of the side of the top hexagon that $AB$ is on is $y = -x\sqrt{3} + \frac{3}{2}\sqrt{3} - \frac{1}{2}$ . Thus, we can solve for the coordinates of $A$ : $x = -x\sqrt{3} + \frac{3\sqrt{3} - 1}{2}$ $x(\sqrt{3} + 1) = \frac{3\sqrt{3} - 1}{2}$ $x = \frac{3\sqrt{3}-1}{2} \cdot \frac{1}{\sqrt{3} + 1}$ $= \frac{3\sqrt{3}-1}{2(\sqrt{3} + 1)} \cdot \frac{\sqrt{3} - 1}{\sqrt{3} - 1}$ $= \frac{10 - 4\sqrt{3}}{4}$ $= \frac{5}{2} - \sqrt{3}$ $\therefore x, y = \frac{5}{2} - \sqrt{3}.$

This means that we can find the length $AB$ , which is equal to $2(\frac{5}{2} - \sqrt{3}) = (5 - 2\sqrt{3}$ . Next, let the top points of the top hexagon be $M$ and $N$ . We will next find the area of trapezoid $ABMN$ . The lengths of the bases are $1$ and $5 - 2\sqrt{3}$ , and the height is equal to the $y$ -coordinate of $M$ minus the $y$ -coordinate of $A$ . The height of the hexagon is $\sqrt{3}$ and the bottom of the hexagon lies on the line $y = \frac{1}{2}$ . Thus, the $y$ -coordinate of $M$ is $\sqrt{3} - \frac{1}{2}$ , and the height is $2\sqrt{3} - 3$ . We can now find the area of the trapezoid: $[ABMN] = (2\sqrt{3} - 3)\left(\frac{1 + 5 - 2\sqrt{3}}{2}\right)$ $= (2\sqrt{3} - 3)(3 - \sqrt{3})$ $= 6\sqrt{3} + 3\sqrt{3} - 9 - 6$ $= 9\sqrt{3} - 15.$

The total area of the figure is the area of a square with side length $AB$ plus four times the area of this trapezoid: $A = (5 - 2\sqrt{3})^2 + 4(9\sqrt{3} - 15)$ $= 37 - 20\sqrt{3} + 36\sqrt{3} - 60$ $= 16\sqrt{3} - 23.$

Our answer is $16 + 3 - 23 = \boxed{\textbf{(B) }-4}$ .

~mathboy100

Solution 2

We calculate the area as the area of the red octagon minus the four purple congruent triangles: $[asy] import geometry; unitsize(3cm); draw((1-sqrt(3),1-sqrt(3))--(1-sqrt(3),sqrt(3))--(sqrt(3),sqrt(3))--(sqrt(3),1-sqrt(3))--cycle,dashed); filldraw((0,1-sqrt(3))--(1,1-sqrt(3))--(sqrt(3),0)--(sqrt(3),1)--(1,sqrt(3))--(0,sqrt(3))--(1-sqrt(3),1)--(1-sqrt(3),0)--cycle,red*0.2+white,red); filldraw((1,1-sqrt(3))--(3-sqrt(3),sqrt(3)-2)--(sqrt(3),0)--cycle,purple*0.2+white,blue); filldraw((sqrt(3),1)--(3-sqrt(3),3-sqrt(3))--(1,sqrt(3))--cycle,purple*0.2+white,blue); filldraw((0,sqrt(3))--(sqrt(3)-2,3-sqrt(3))--(1-sqrt(3),1)--cycle,purple*0.2+white,blue); filldraw((0,1-sqrt(3))--(1-sqrt(3),0)--(sqrt(3)-2,sqrt(3)-2)--cycle,purple*0.2+white,blue); draw((0,0) -- (1,0) -- (1,1) -- (0,1) -- cycle); draw(shift((1/2,1-sqrt(3)/2))*polygon(6)); draw(shift((1/2,sqrt(3)/2))*polygon(6)); draw(shift((sqrt(3)/2,1/2))*rotate(90)*polygon(6)); draw(shift((1-sqrt(3)/2,1/2))*rotate(90)*polygon(6)); [/asy]$ We first find the important angles in the figure. We note that 2 adjacent hexagons are rotated $90^\circ$ with respect to the other, so the angles between any sides is $150^\circ$ . In particular, as the purple triangles are isosceles, they have angles $150^\circ,15^\circ$ , and $15^\circ$ , and the octagon is equiangular (all its angles are $135^\circ$ ). Thus, we can draw a square around the octagon, and we note that the ``cut out" triangles are all isosceles right triangles.

Now, we calculate the side length of the square. Note that the hexagon has a height of $\sqrt 3$ , so the length of a side of the square is $2\sqrt 3-1$ . In particular, the horizontal/vertical sides of the octagon have length $1$ , so the legs of the isosceles triangles are $\frac{2\sqrt3-1-1}2=\sqrt3-1$ Thus, the area of the octagon is $(2\sqrt3-1)^2-4\cdot\frac 12(\sqrt3-1)^2=5$ Now, we calculate the area of one of the four isosceles triangles. The base of the triangle is $(\sqrt 3-1)\sqrt 2$ , so the area is $\frac 14\mathrm{base length}^2\cdot\tan(\mathrm{base angle})=\frac 14((\sqrt3-1)\sqrt2)^2\cdot\tan15^\circ=\frac 14(8-4\sqrt3)(2-\sqrt3)=7-4\sqrt 3$ Thus, the area of the dodecagon is $5-4(7-4\sqrt3)=16\sqrt3-23$ Thus the answer is $16+3-23=-4$ , or $\boxed{\textbf{(B)}}$ .

~cr. naman12

Video Solution

https://youtu.be/QYclqXWnxxE

~Steven Chen (Professor Chen Education Palace, www.professorchenedu.com)

2022 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 24	Followed by Last problem
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

2022 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 25

Contents

Problem

Solution 1 (Coord bash)

Solution 2

Video Solution

See Also