1998 AIME Problem 3

Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 3 of the 1998 AIME, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 1998 AIME solutions, or check the answer key.

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Concepts:absolute valuecoordinate geometryfactoringparallelogram

Difficulty rating: 2340

3.

The graph of y2+2xy+40x=400y^2 + 2xy + 40|x| = 400 partitions the plane into several regions. What is the area of the bounded region?

Solution:

For x0x \ge 0 rewrite the equation as 2x(y+20)=400y2=(20y)(20+y),2x(y + 20) = 400 - y^2 = (20 - y)(20 + y), so either y=20y = -20 or y=202x.y = 20 - 2x. For x0x \le 0 it becomes 2x(y20)=(y20)(y+20),2x(y - 20) = -(y - 20)(y + 20), so either y=20y = 20 or y=202x.y = -20 - 2x. The graph therefore consists of two horizontal rays and two rays of slope 2.-2.

These rays bound a parallelogram: the top edge runs from (20,20)(-20, 20) to (0,20)(0, 20) along y=20,y = 20, the bottom edge from (0,20)(0, -20) to (20,20)(20, -20) along y=20,y = -20, and the two slanted edges of slope 2-2 connect them.

The parallelogram has horizontal base 2020 and height 4040 between the lines y=20y = 20 and y=20,y = -20, so its area is 2040=800.20 \cdot 40 = 800.

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