Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2017

Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
Let ABCDABCD be a quadrilateral with side lengths AB=2AB=2, BC=3BC=3, CD=5CD=5, and DA=4DA=4. What is the maximum possible radius of a circle inscribed in quadrilateral ABCDABCD?

Solution

Solution:
Let the tangent lengths be a,b,c,da, b, c, d so that
a+b=2b+c=3c+d=5d+a=4 \begin{aligned} & a+b=2 \\ & b+c=3 \\ & c+d=5 \\ & d+a=4 \end{aligned}
Then b=2ab=2-a and c=1+ac=1+a and d=4ad=4-a. The radius of the inscribed circle of quadrilateral ABCDABCD is given by
abc+abd+acd+bcda+b+c+d=7a2+16a+87 \sqrt{\frac{abc+abd+acd+bcd}{a+b+c+d}} = \sqrt{\frac{-7a^2+16a+8}{7}}
This is clearly maximized when a=87a=\frac{8}{7} which leads to a radius of 12049=2307\sqrt{\frac{120}{49}}=\frac{2\sqrt{30}}{7}.

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