2001 AMC 10 Problem 18

Attempt Problem 18 of the 2001 AMC 10 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 2001 AMC 10 solutions, or check the answer key.

All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

18.

The plane is tiled by congruent squares and congruent pentagons as indicated. The percent of the plane that is enclosed by the pentagons is closest to

5050

5252

5454

5656

5858

Answer: D
Concepts:area ratiotilingpercentage
Difficulty rating: 1530
Solution:

Consider a repeating 3×33\times3 block of nine small squares. Four of these nine squares are not part of the pentagons, so the pentagons cover 149=5955.6%1-\dfrac49=\dfrac59\approx55.6\% of the area.

This is closest to 56.56. Thus, the correct answer is D.

← Problem 17#17
Full Exam

Problem 18 in Other Years