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China Mathematical Competition

Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it China

Let the side length of the base and height of regular pyramid P−ABCDP-ABCD be equal. Point GG is the centroid of face △PBC\triangle PBC. Then the sine of the angle between line AGAG and base ABCDABCD is ______.

Solution

OO and HH, respectively. Then OO is the centre of the base square, HH lies on OMOM, and GHPO=HMOM=GMPM=13\frac{GH}{PO} = \frac{HM}{OM} = \frac{GM}{PM} = \frac{1}{3}.

For the sake of convenience, let AB=PO=6AB = PO = 6. Thus, GH=PO3=2GH = \frac{PO}{3} = 2, OH=23OM=2OH = \frac{2}{3}OM = 2. And since AO=32AO = 3\sqrt{2}, ∠AOH=135∘\angle AOH = 135^\circ, we have
AH2=AO2+OH2−2AO⋅OH⋅cos⁡∠AOH=34, AH^2 = AO^2 + OH^2 - 2AO \cdot OH \cdot \cos \angle AOH = 34,
and thus AG=AH2+GH2=38AG = \sqrt{AH^2 + GH^2} = \sqrt{38}.

The angle between line AGAG and base ABCDABCD is equal to ∠GAH\angle GAH. Therefore, the desired sine is
sin⁡∠GAH=GHAG=238=3819. \sin \angle GAH = \frac{GH}{AG} = \frac{2}{\sqrt{38}} = \frac{\sqrt{38}}{19}.

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