Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.3 AIME Find the answer United States

Problem:
Let ABC\triangle ABC be an isosceles right triangle with AB=AC=10AB = AC = 10. Let MM be the midpoint of BCBC and NN the midpoint of BMBM. Let ANAN hit the circumcircle of ABC\triangle ABC again at TT. Compute the area of TBC\triangle TBC.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Solution:
Note that since quadrilateral BACTBAC T is cyclic, we have
BTA=BCA=45=CBA=CTA \angle BTA = \angle BCA = 45^\circ = \angle CBA = \angle CTA
Hence, TATA bisects BTC\angle BTC, and BTC=90\angle BTC = 90^\circ. By the angle bisector theorem, we then have
BTTC=BNNC=13. \frac{BT}{TC} = \frac{BN}{NC} = \frac{1}{3}.
By the Pythagorean theorem on right triangles TBC\triangle TBC and ABC\triangle ABC, we have
10BT2=BT2+TC2=AB2+AC2=200 10\, BT^2 = BT^2 + TC^2 = AB^2 + AC^2 = 200
so BT2=20BT^2 = 20. Note that the area of TBC\triangle TBC is
BTTC2=3BT22 \frac{BT \cdot TC}{2} = \frac{3 \cdot BT^2}{2}
so our answer is then
32BT2=3220=30 \frac{3}{2} \cdot BT^2 = \frac{3}{2} \cdot 20 = 30

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