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smc

geometry intermediate

Problem

A line through the point cuts from the second quadrant a triangular region with area . The equation of the line is:
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Solution
The right triangle has area and base , so the height satisfies . This means . Becuase the triangle is in the second quadrant, the coordinates are the origin, , and , which means the third coordinate is . So, we want the equation of a line though and . The slope is , which simplifies to . The y-intercept is , so the line in slope-intercept form is , or: All the solutions have a positive x-coefficient and no fractions, so we clear the fractions by multiplying by and move the term to the right to get: This is equivalent to option
Final answer
B