2021 AMC Fall 10A Problem 19
A disk of radius rolls all the way around the inside of a square of side length and sweeps out a region of area . A second disk of radius rolls all the way around the outside of the same square and sweeps out a region of area . The value of can be written as , where , and are positive integers and and are relatively prime. What is ?
Show solution without answering
Key insight
Inside, the disk sweeps a band 2 wide but misses a piece of 1 - pi/4 at each corner. Outside, it sweeps four strips and four quarter circles.
Solution
A rolling disk of radius covers every point within of the path of its center. So for each disk, first find where the center goes, then see what it covers.
Inside the square.
1. The center stays away from each wall, so it moves around a smaller square of side .
2. The disk covers a band along the walls, wide. If it filled that band completely, the area would be the big square minus the untouched middle square of side :
3. But the disk is round, so it cannot reach into the corners. At a corner, the closest the center gets is from each wall. The corner square is then covered only by a quarter circle of radius . The missed piece at each corner has area .
4. So
Outside the square.
- The disk covers everything within of the square, outside it. Along each side that is a strip: .
- At each corner the disk swings around the corner point, covering a quarter circle of radius , area . Four corners give .
- Outside area: .
Set up the equation.
8. The outside area is :
9. Move terms: , so and
10. So , , , and .
The answer is .
Why this works
To find what a rolling disk sweeps, trace its center and then "thicken" that path by the radius. Around an outside corner the thickened path bulges into a quarter circle. In an inside corner, the round disk cannot fill the corner and leaves a small gap: a square minus a quarter circle. Breaking both regions into rectangles and quarter circles gives two simple expressions in .
Concise solution
A shorter write-up, the way contest solutions are usually written. It may take a different route from the solution above.
Inside. The disk's center stays unit from the walls, tracing a square of side . The disk covers every point within of that path: the band of width along the walls, minus what it cannot reach in the corners. Near a corner, the nearest center position is the corner of the center-path, unit from each wall; the unit square in the corner is covered only by the quarter disk of radius around that point. So each corner has an unreachable sliver of area , and
Outside. Rolling around the outside, the disk covers every point within of the square but outside it: four rectangles along the sides plus four quarter disks of radius at the corners (the disk pivots around each corner). Area:
Equation. The outside area is :
So , , and .
The answer is .
Review in the AoPS books
- Introduction to Geometry, Chapter 11: Circles
- Introduction to Geometry, Chapter 8: Quadrilaterals
- Introduction to Geometry, Chapter 4: Perimeter and Area (§4.2, §4.3)
- Introduction to Geometry, Chapter 12: Circles and Angles
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Problem © Mathematical Association of America (MAA), American Mathematics Competitions. Reproduced for non-commercial educational use. Solution and commentary are original to this site.