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smc

geometry senior

Problem

Andrea inscribed a circle inside a regular pentagon, circumscribed a circle around the pentagon, and calculated the area of the region between the two circles. Bethany did the same with a regular heptagon (7 sides). The areas of the two regions were and , respectively. Each polygon had a side length of . Which of the following is true?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Solution
In any regular polygon with side length , consider the isosceles triangle formed by the center of the polygon and two consecutive vertices and . We are given that . Obviously , where is the radius of the circumcircle. Let be the midpoint of . Then , and , where is the radius of the incircle. Applying the Pythagorean theorem on the triangle , we get that . Then the area between the circumcircle and the incircle can be computed as . Hence , , and therefore .
Final answer
C