Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

The quadrilateral ABCDABCD is inscribed in a circle. It is known that the lines DADA and BCBC intersect at an angle of 6060^\circ and that DA=BC=2|DA| = |BC| = 2, AB=4|AB| = 4. Find the radius of the circle.

Solution

Let the lines DADA and CBCB intersect at EE. We have to distinguish two possibilities: either CD<AB|CD| < |AB| or CD>AB|CD| > |AB|, see diagram below.

Figure 1

Since AD=BCAD = BC, by symmetry we get DE=CEDE = CE and ABDCAB \parallel DC. Since AEB=60\angle AEB = 60^\circ this implies that ABE\triangle ABE and DCE\triangle DCE are equilateral. Thus ABC=60\angle ABC = 60^\circ if CD<AB|CD| < |AB| and ABC=120\angle ABC = 120^\circ if CD>AB|CD| > |AB|. The Cosine Rule for the triangle ABCABC now gives

CA2=AB2+BC22ABBCcosABC. |CA|^2 = |AB|^2 + |BC|^2 - 2 \cdot |AB| \cdot |BC| \cdot \cos \angle ABC.

Using cos60=cos120=1/2\cos 60^\circ = -\cos 120^\circ = 1/2, we get CA2=16+4±8|CA|^2 = 16 + 4 \pm 8, hence CA=23|CA| = 2\sqrt{3} if CD<AB|CD| < |AB| and CA=27|CA| = 2\sqrt{7} if CD>AB|CD| > |AB|.

The radius RR of the circle is the circumradius of ABC\triangle ABC which is given by the Sine Rule for this triangle

R=CA2sinABC=CA3. R = \frac{|CA|}{2 \sin \angle ABC} = \frac{|CA|}{\sqrt{3}}.

Therefore, R=2R = 2 if CD<AB|CD| < |AB| and R=273R = 2\sqrt{\frac{7}{3}} if CD>AB|CD| > |AB|.

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