Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

A triangle with side lengths 5,7,85,7,8 is inscribed in a circle CC. The diameters of CC parallel to the sides of lengths 55 and 88 divide CC into four sectors. What is the area of either of the two smaller ones?

Solution

Solution:

Let PQR\triangle PQR have sides p=7p=7, q=5q=5, r=8r=8. Of the four sectors determined by the diameters of CC that are parallel to PQPQ and PRPR, two have angles equal to PP and the other two have angles equal to πP\pi - P. We first find PP using the law of cosines:

49=25+642(5)(8)cosP 49 = 25 + 64 - 2(5)(8) \cos P
which implies
cosP=12 \cos P = \frac{1}{2}
so
P=π3 P = \frac{\pi}{3}
Thus the two smaller sectors will have angle π3\frac{\pi}{3}.

Next we find the circumradius of PQR\triangle PQR using the formula
R=pqr4[PQR] R = \frac{pqr}{4[PQR]}
where [PQR][PQR] is the area of PQR\triangle PQR. By Heron's Formula we have
[PQR]=10532=103 [PQR] = \sqrt{10 \cdot 5 \cdot 3 \cdot 2} = 10 \sqrt{3}
thus
R=5784(103)=73 R = \frac{5 \cdot 7 \cdot 8}{4(10 \sqrt{3})} = \frac{7}{\sqrt{3}}
The area of a smaller sector is thus
π/32π(πR2)=π6(73)2=4918π \frac{\pi/3}{2\pi} (\pi R^2) = \frac{\pi}{6} \left(\frac{7}{\sqrt{3}}\right)^2 = \frac{49}{18} \pi

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.