MathDB
Octagon/Rectangle Area

Source:

January 5, 2009
geometryrectangle

Problem Statement

A regular octagon ABCDEFGH ABCDEFGH has an area of one square unit. What is the area of the rectangle ABEF ABEF? [asy]unitsize(8mm); defaultpen(linewidth(.8pt)+fontsize(6pt));
pair C=dir(22.5), B=dir(67.5), A=dir(112.5), H=dir(157.5), G=dir(202.5), F=dir(247.5), E=dir(292.5), D=dir(337.5);
draw(A--B--C--D--E--F--G--H--cycle); label("AA",A,NNW); label("BB",B,NNE); label("CC",C,ENE); label("DD",D,ESE); label("EE",E,SSE); label("FF",F,SSW); label("GG",G,WSW); label("HH",H,WNW);[/asy] (A)\ 1\minus{}\frac{\sqrt2}{2} \qquad (B)\ \frac{\sqrt2}{4} \qquad (C)\ \sqrt2\minus{}1 \qquad (D)\ \frac12 \qquad (E)\ \frac{1\plus{}\sqrt2}{4}