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jmc

geometry senior

Problem

The nine points of this grid are equally spaced horizontally and vertically. The distance between two neighboring points is 1 unit. What is the area, in square units, of the region where the two triangles overlap?

problem
Solution
We color one of the triangles blue, and draw three blue segments connecting its points of intersection with the other triangle. Because of the symmetry inherent in the grid and the two triangles (which are both isosceles), these three blue segments divide the blue triangle into congruent smaller triangles. The blue triangle contains 9 of these congruent smaller triangles.

The region of overlap of the two triangles is a hexagonal region. As per the diagram above, this hexagonal region contains 6 of these congruent smaller triangles. Thus, the area of the hexagonal region is of the area of one of the isosceles triangles. We compute the area of one isosceles triangle as follows:

Label points as above. To compute the area of this triangle (), notice how it is equal to the area of square minus the areas of triangles , , and . The square has side length 2 units, so the area of and is and the area of is . The area of square is , so the area of triangle is equal to .

Finally, remember that the hexagonal region has area of the area of the triangle, or . Thus, the answer is .
Final answer
1