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jmc

geometry senior

Problem

Square has area . Point lies on side . Points and are the midpoints of and , respectively. Given that quadrilateral has area , what is the area of triangle ?
Solution
We begin by drawing a diagram: We know that the gray area above (quadrilateral ) has area , and we wish to determine the pink area ().

First we note that has base , equal to the side length of square , and also has height equal to the side length of square . Thus has area equal to half the area of , or .

Triangle has half the base and half the height of , so its area is .

Since quadrilateral can be divided into and , we know that has area . This is half the area of (which shares an altitude with and has twice the corresponding base). Thus, has area .

Since square can be divided into triangles , , and , we know that the area of is . Finally, shares an altitude with and has half the corresponding base, so the area of is , or .
Final answer
41