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2009 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 10

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The following problem is from both the 2009 AMC 12A #10 and 2009 AMC 10A #12, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

In quadrilateral ABCD, AB = 5, BC = 17, CD = 5, DA = 9, and BD is an integer. What is BD?

unitsize(4mm);defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(8pt));dotfactor=4;pair C=(0,0), B=(17,0);pair D=intersectionpoints(Circle(C...
\textbf{(A)}\ 11 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 12 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 13 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 14 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 15

Solution

By the triangle inequality we have BD < DA + AB = 9 + 5 = 14, and also BD + CD > BC, hence BD > BC - CD = 17 - 5 = 12.

We got that 12 < BD < 14, and as we know that BD is an integer, we must have BD=\boxed{13}.

See Also

2009 AMC 12A (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 9
Followed by
Problem 11
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
2009 AMC 10A (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 11
Followed by
Problem 13
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Want to learn how to tackle those tough AMC/AIME/Olympiad counting and probability problems? Check out Art of Problem Solving's Intermediate Counting & Probability by David Patrick.
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