Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.5 AIME Prove it Brazil

Given a circle and a point AA inside the circle, but not at its center. Find points B,C,DB, C, D on the circle which maximize the area of the quadrilateral ABCDABCD.

Solution

If we fix the length BDBD, then we obviously maximize area BDABDA by taking the distance of AA from BDBD as large as possible and hence by taking BDBD perpendicular to AOAO and on the opposite side of OO to AA. We maximize BCDBCD by taking CC the midpoint of the arc BDBD. So suppose the radius of the circle is RR, OA=dOA = d and we take BD=2xBD = 2x. We find area ABCD=x(R+d)ABCD = x(R + d), which is maximized by maximizing xx. Thus we take BDBD to be the diameter perpendicular to AOAO and CC the point of the circle on the ray AOAO.

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