2014 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 13

Problem

Equilateral $\triangle ABC$ has side length $1$ , and squares $ABDE$ , $BCHI$ , $CAFG$ lie outside the triangle. What is the area of hexagon $DEFGHI$ ?

$[asy] import graph; size(6cm); pen dps = linewidth(0.7) + fontsize(8); defaultpen(dps); pair B = (0,0); pair C = (1,0); pair A = rotate(60,B)*C; pair E = rotate(270,A)*B; pair D = rotate(270,E)*A; pair F = rotate(90,A)*C; pair G = rotate(90,F)*A; pair I = rotate(270,B)*C; pair H = rotate(270,I)*B; draw(A--B--C--cycle); draw(A--E--D--B); draw(A--F--G--C); draw(B--I--H--C); draw(E--F); draw(D--I); draw(I--H); draw(H--G); label("$A$",A,N); label("$B$",B,SW); label("$C$",C,SE); label("$D$",D,W); label("$E$",E,W); label("$F$",F,E); label("$G$",G,E); label("$H$",H,SE); label("$I$",I,SW); [/asy]$

$\textbf{(A)}\ \dfrac{12+3\sqrt3}4\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ \dfrac92\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 3+\sqrt3\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ \dfrac{6+3\sqrt3}2\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 6$

Solution

The area of the equilateral triangle is simply $\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{4}$ . The area of the three squares is $3\times 1=3$ .

Since $\angle C=360$ , $\angle GCH=360-90-90-60=120$ .

Dropping an altitude from $C$ to $GH$ allows to create a $30-60-90$ triangle since $\triangle GCH$ is isosceles. This means that the height of $\triangle GCH$ is $\dfrac{1}{2}$ and half the length of $GH$ is $\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{2}$ . Therefore, the area of each isosceles triangle is $\dfrac{1}{2}\times\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{2}=\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{4}$ . Multiplying by $3$ yields $\dfrac{3\sqrt{3}}{4}$ for all three isosceles triangles.

Therefore, the total area is $3+\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{4}+\dfrac{3\sqrt{3}}{4}=3+\dfrac{4\sqrt{3}}{4}=3+\sqrt{3}\implies\boxed{\textbf{(C)}\ 3+\sqrt3}$ .

2014 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
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2014 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 13

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