2016 AIME I Problem 4

Attempt Problem 4 of the 2016 AIME I below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2016 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.

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4.

A right prism with height hh has bases that are regular hexagons with sides of length 12.12. A vertex AA of the prism and its three adjacent vertices are the vertices of a triangular pyramid. The dihedral angle (the angle between the two planes) formed by the face of the pyramid that lies in a base of the prism and the face of the pyramid that does not contain AA measures 60.60^\circ. Find h2.h^2.

Answer: 108
Concepts:3D geometryregular polygontrigonometry
Difficulty rating: 2340
Solution:

The three vertices adjacent to AA are its two neighbors BB and CC in the same hexagonal base and the vertex DD directly above A,A, with DA=hDA = h perpendicular to the base. The face in the base is ABC,ABC, and the face avoiding AA is BCD;BCD; they meet along BC.\overline{BC}.

Let EE be the midpoint of BC.\overline{BC}. Since AB=AC=12AB = AC = 12 and BAC=120\angle BAC = 120^\circ (the interior angle of a regular hexagon), AEBC\overline{AE} \perp \overline{BC} and AE=12cos60=6.AE = 12\cos 60^\circ = 6. Because DA\overline{DA} is perpendicular to the base, DEBC\overline{DE} \perp \overline{BC} as well, so the dihedral angle is DEA=60.\angle DEA = 60^\circ.

In right triangle DAE,DAE, h=AEtan60=63,h = AE\tan 60^\circ = 6\sqrt{3}, so h2=108.h^2 = 108.

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