2011 AMC 10A Problem 25
Problem 25 of 25HarderGeometryCounting & Probability
Let be a square region and an integer. A point in the interior of is called -ray partitional if there are rays emanating from that divide into triangles of equal area. How many points are -ray partitional but not -ray partitional?
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Solution
Scale the square to have side length and write where and are its distances from the left and bottom sides. Every corner must be joined to ; otherwise one of the regions containing that corner would not be a triangle.
Each of the triangles has area A triangle whose base lies on the bottom side has height so its base has length Therefore the number of triangles along the bottom side is which must be a positive integer. Applying the same argument to all four sides shows that are positive integers. Conversely, whenever these four numbers are integers, subdividing each side into the indicated number of equal bases and joining the division points to produces the required triangles.
For this says and for Hence the -ray points form a grid. Similarly, the -ray points have coordinates and with
A coordinate belongs to both grids exactly when or Thus the common coordinates are giving a overlap. The requested number is
Thus, C is the correct answer.