Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Philippines

Problem:

In rectangle ABCDABCD, EE and FF are chosen on AB\overline{AB} and CD\overline{CD}, respectively, so that AEFDAEFD is a square. If ABBE=BEBC\frac{AB}{BE} = \frac{BE}{BC}, determine the value of ABBC\frac{AB}{BC}.

Solution

Solution:

Let xx be BEBE and yy be AEAE. Note that AEFDAEFD is a square so AE=BC=yAE = BC = y. Also, AB=BE+AEAB = BE + AE so AB=x+yAB = x + y. Since ABBE=BEBC\frac{AB}{BE} = \frac{BE}{BC} then x+yx=xy\frac{x + y}{x} = \frac{x}{y}. Thus, we have xy+y2=x2xy + y^2 = x^2 which yields x2xyy2=0x^2 - x y - y^2 = 0. Solving for xx using the quadratic formula gives us x=y±y24(1)(y2)2=(1±52)yx = \frac{y \pm \sqrt{y^2 - 4(1)(-y^2)}}{2} = \left(\frac{1 \pm \sqrt{5}}{2}\right) y. However, we will only take x=(1+52)yx = \left(\frac{1 + \sqrt{5}}{2}\right) y since the other solution will mean that x<0x < 0 which is absurd since xx is a measure of length. Thus, ABBC=x+yy=(1+52)y+yy=1+5+22=3+52\frac{AB}{BC} = \frac{x + y}{y} = \frac{\left(\frac{1 + \sqrt{5}}{2}\right) y + y}{y} = \frac{1 + \sqrt{5} + 2}{2} = \frac{3 + \sqrt{5}}{2}. Therefore, the answer is 3+52\frac{3 + \sqrt{5}}{2}.

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