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2001 AMC 10 Problem 20

Problem 20 of 25HarderAlgebraGeometry

A regular octagon is formed by cutting an isosceles right triangle from each of the corners of a square with sides of length 2000.2000. What is the length of each side of the octagon?

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Solution

Let each octagon side be x.x. It is the hypotenuse of each cut isosceles right triangle, whose legs are x2.\dfrac{x}{\sqrt2}. Along one side of the square, two legs and one octagon side give 2x2+x=2000,2\cdot\dfrac{x}{\sqrt2}+x=2000, so x(2+1)=2000x(\sqrt2+1)=2000 and x=20002+1=2000(21).x=\dfrac{2000}{\sqrt2+1}=2000(\sqrt2-1). Thus, the correct answer is B.

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Concepts: regular polygon · special right triangle · rationalizing denominator

Problem text and solution from the LIVE past-contest archive. See also the AoPS wiki page for community solutions.