Math Gold Medalist

Lor

2023 AMC 8 

Problem 24

Isosceles triangle $ABC$ has equal side lengths $AB$ and $BC$. In the figures below, segments are drawn parallel to $\overline{AC}$ so that the shaded portions of $\triangle ABC$ have the same area. The heights of the two unshaded portions are 11 and 5 units, respectively. What is the height $h$ of $\triangle ABC$?

[asy] //Diagram by TheMathGuyd size(12cm); real h = 2.5; // height real g=4; //c2c space real s = 0.65; //Xcord of Hline real adj = 0.08; //adjust line diffs pair A,B,C; B=(0,h); C=(1,0); A=-conj(C); pair PONE=(s,h*(1-s)); //Endpoint of Hline ONE pair PTWO=(s+adj,h*(1-s-adj)); //Endpoint of Hline ONE path LONE=PONE--(-conj(PONE)); //Hline ONE path LTWO=PTWO--(-conj(PTWO)); path T=A--B--C--cycle; //Triangle fill (shift(g,0)*(LTWO--B--cycle),mediumgrey); fill (LONE--A--C--cycle,mediumgrey); draw(LONE); draw(T); label("$A$",A,SW); label("$B$",B,N); label("$C$",C,SE); draw(shift(g,0)*LTWO); draw(shift(g,0)*T); label("$A$",shift(g,0)*A,SW); label("$B$",shift(g,0)*B,N); label("$C$",shift(g,0)*C,SE); draw(B--shift(g,0)*B,dashed); draw(C--shift(g,0)*A,dashed); draw((g/2,0)--(g/2,h),dashed); draw((0,h*(1-s))--B,dashed); draw((g,h*(1-s-adj))--(g,0),dashed); label("$5$", midpoint((g,h*(1-s-adj))--(g,0)),UnFill); label("$h$", midpoint((g/2,0)--(g/2,h)),UnFill); label("$11$", midpoint((0,h*(1-s))--B),UnFill); [/asy]

$\textbf{(A)}\ 14.6 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 14.8 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 15 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 15.2 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 15.4$


Similar Triangles

Ratio of Areas of 2 Similar Triangles

For left shaded region subtract white triangle from whole triangle and use the ratio of similarity which is 11/h.

The ratio of similarity of right shaded region to whole triangle is (11-5)/h

When the ratio of similarity = k     ->    ratio of areas = k^2

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   Solution