Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2019

Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
Let SS be the set of all nondegenerate triangles formed from the vertices of a regular octagon with side length 11. Find the ratio of the largest area of any triangle in SS to the smallest area of any triangle in SS.

Solution

Solution:
By a smoothing argument, the largest triangle is that where the sides span 33, 33, and 22 sides of the octagon respectively (i.e. it has angles 4545^{\circ}, 67.567.5^{\circ}, and 67.567.5^{\circ}), and the smallest triangle is that formed by three adjacent vertices of the octagon. Scaling so that the circumradius of the octagon is 11, our answer is
sin(90)+2sin(135)2sin(45)sin(90)=1+221=3+22 \frac{\sin \left(90^{\circ}\right)+2 \sin \left(135^{\circ}\right)}{2 \sin \left(45^{\circ}\right)-\sin \left(90^{\circ}\right)}=\frac{1+\sqrt{2}}{\sqrt{2}-1}=3+2 \sqrt{2}
where the numerator is derived from splitting the large triangle by the circumradii, and the denominator is derived from adding the areas of the two triangles formed by the circumradii, then subtracting the area not in the small triangle.

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