2009 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 11

The following problem is from both the 2009 AMC 12A #11 and 2009 AMC 10A #15, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

The figures $F_1$ , $F_2$ , $F_3$ , and $F_4$ shown are the first in a sequence of figures. For $n\ge3$ , $F_n$ is constructed from $F_{n - 1}$ by surrounding it with a square and placing one more diamond on each side of the new square than $F_{n - 1}$ had on each side of its outside square. For example, figure $F_3$ has $13$ diamonds. How many diamonds are there in figure $F_{20}$ ?

$[asy] unitsize(3mm); defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(8pt)); path d=(1/2,0)--(0,sqrt(3)/2)--(-1/2,0)--(0,-sqrt(3)/2)--cycle; marker m=marker(scale(5)*d,Fill); path f1=(0,0); path f2=(0,0)--(-1,1)--(1,1)--(1,-1)--(-1,-1); path[] g2=(-1,1)--(-1,-1)--(0,0)^^(1,-1)--(0,0)--(1,1); path f3=f2--(-2,-2)--(-2,0)--(-2,2)--(0,2)--(2,2)--(2,0)--(2,-2)--(0,-2); path[] g3=g2^^(-2,-2)--(0,-2)^^(2,-2)--(1,-1)^^(1,1)--(2,2)^^(-1,1)--(-2,2); path[] f4=f3^^(-3,-3)--(-3,-1)--(-3,1)--(-3,3)--(-1,3)--(1,3)--(3,3)-- (3,1)--(3,-1)--(3,-3)--(1,-3)--(-1,-3); path[] g4=g3^^(-2,-2)--(-3,-3)--(-1,-3)^^(3,-3)--(2,-2)^^(2,2)--(3,3)^^ (-2,2)--(-3,3); draw(f1,m); draw(shift(5,0)*f2,m); draw(shift(5,0)*g2); draw(shift(12,0)*f3,m); draw(shift(12,0)*g3); draw(shift(21,0)*f4,m); draw(shift(21,0)*g4); label("$F_1$",(0,-4)); label("$F_2$",(5,-4)); label("$F_3$",(12,-4)); label("$F_4$",(21,-4)); [/asy]$

$\textbf{(A)}\ 401 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 485 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 585 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 626 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 761$

Solution

Solution 1

Split $F_n$ into $4$ congruent triangles by its diagonals (like in the pictures in the problem). This shows that the number of diamonds it contains is equal to $4$ times the $(n-2)$ th triangular number (i.e. the diamonds within the triangles or between the diagonals) and $4(n-1)+1$ (the diamonds on sides of the triangles or on the diagonals). The $n$ th triangular number is $\frac{n(n+1)}{2}$ . Putting this together for $F_2_0$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg) this gives:

$\frac{4(18)(19)}{2}+4(19)+1=\boxed{761}$

Solution 2

Color the diamond layers alternately blue and red, starting from the outside. You'll get the following pattern:

unitsize(3mm);
defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(8pt));

path d=(1/2,0)--(0,sqrt(3)/2)--(-1/2,0)--(0,-sqrt(3)/2)--cycle;
marker mred=marker(scale(5)*d,red,Fill);
marker mblue=marker(scale(5)*d,blue,Fill);
path f1=(0,0);
path f2=(-1,1)--(1,1)--(1,-1)--(-1,-1)--cycle;
path f3=(-2,-2)--(-2,0)--(-2,2)--(0,2)--(2,2)--(2,0)--(2,-2)--(0,-2)--cycle
path f4=(-3,-3)--(-3,-1)--(-3,1)--(-3,3)--(-1,3)--(1,3)--(3,3)--(3,1)--(3,-1)--(3,-3)--(1,-3)--(-1,-3)--cycle;

draw((-3,-3)--(3,3));
draw((-3,3)--(3,-3));
draw(f1,mred);
draw(f2,mblue);
draw(f3,mred);
draw(f4,mblue);
 (Error making remote request. Unknown error_msg)

In the figure $F_n$ , the blue diamonds form a $n\times n$ square, and the red diamonds form a $(n-1)\times(n-1)$ square. Hence the total number of diamonds in $F_{20}$ is $20^2 + 19^2 = \boxed{761}$ .

Solution 3

When constructing $F_n$ from $F_{n-1}$ , we add $4(n-1)$ new diamonds. Let $d_n$ be the number of diamonds in $F_n$ . We now know that $d_1=1$ and $\forall n>1:~ d_n=d_{n-1} + 4(n-1)$ .

Hence we get: $\begin{align*} d_{20} & = d_{19} + 4\cdot 19 \\ & = d_{18} + 4\cdot 18 + 4\cdot 19 \\ & = \cdots \\ & = 1 + 4(1+2+\cdots+18+19) \\ & = 1 + 4\cdot\frac{19\cdot 20}2 \\ & = \boxed{761} \end{align*}$

2009 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 10	Followed by Problem 12
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

2009 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 14	Followed by Problem 16
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 10 Problems and Solutions

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