Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.2 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

Joe has a triangle with area 3\sqrt{3}. What's the smallest perimeter it could have?

Solution

Solution:

The minimum occurs for an equilateral triangle. The area of an equilateral triangle with side-length ss is 34s2\frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} s^{2}, so if the area is 3\sqrt{3} then s=343=2s = \sqrt{\sqrt{3} \frac{4}{\sqrt{3}}} = 2. Multiplying by 33 to get the perimeter yields the answer 66.

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