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Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it Ireland

In triangle ABC, the length of the altitude through A is equal to 15314\frac{15\sqrt{3}}{14}, BAC=120\angle BAC = 120^\circ and BC=7|BC| = 7. Find the lengths of the other two sides of triangle ABC.

Solution

If we let a=BCa = |BC|, b=CAb = |CA| and c=ABc = |AB| and use that cos(120)=1/2\cos(120^\circ) = -1/2, the Cosine Rule gives 49=a2=b2+c2+bc49 = a^2 = b^2 + c^2 + bc. Moreover, the area of triangle ABCABC is equal to 7215314=1534\frac{7}{2} \cdot \frac{15\sqrt{3}}{14} = \frac{15\sqrt{3}}{4} and this is equal to bcsin(120)2=bc34\frac{bc\sin(120^\circ)}{2} = \frac{bc\sqrt{3}}{4}, hence bc=15bc = 15. We obtain b2+c2=49bc=34b^2 + c^2 = 49 - bc = 34 and so
(b+c)2=b2+2bc+c2=34+30=64(bc)2=b22bc+c2=3430=4. (b+c)^2 = b^2 + 2bc + c^2 = 34 + 30 = 64 \\ (b-c)^2 = b^2 - 2bc + c^2 = 34 - 30 = 4.
Therefore, b+c=8b + c = 8 and bc=±2b - c = \pm 2. This leads to (b,c)=(3,5)(b, c) = (3, 5) or (b,c)=(5,3)(b, c) = (5, 3) and we see that the lengths of the other two sides of triangle ABCABC are 3 and 5.

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