Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let Γ\Gamma denote the circumcircle of triangle ABCA B C. Point DD is on AB\overline{A B} such that CD\overline{C D} bisects ACB\angle A C B. Points PP and QQ are on Γ\Gamma such that PQ\overline{P Q} passes through DD and is perpendicular to CD\overline{C D}. Compute PQP Q, given that BC=20B C=20, CA=80C A=80, AB=65A B=65.

Solution

Solution:
Suppose that PP lies between AA and BB and QQ lies between AA and CC, and let line PQP Q intersect lines ACA C and BCB C at EE and FF respectively. As usual, we write aa, bb, cc for the lengths of BCB C, CAC A, ABA B.

By the angle bisector theorem, AD/DB=AC/CBA D / D B = A C / C B so that AD=bca+bA D = \frac{b c}{a+b} and BD=aca+bB D = \frac{a c}{a+b}.

Now by Stewart's theorem,
cCD2+(aca+b)(bca+b)c=a2bca+b+ab2ca+b c \cdot C D^{2} + \left(\frac{a c}{a+b}\right)\left(\frac{b c}{a+b}\right) c = \frac{a^{2} b c}{a+b} + \frac{a b^{2} c}{a+b}
from which
CD2=ab((a+b)2c2)(a+b)2 C D^{2} = \frac{a b \left((a+b)^{2} - c^{2}\right)}{(a+b)^{2}}

Now observe that triangles CDEC D E and CDFC D F are congruent, so ED=DFE D = D F.

By Menelaus' theorem,
CAAEEDDFFBBC=1 \frac{C A}{A E} \cdot \frac{E D}{D F} \cdot \frac{F B}{B C} = 1
so that
CABC=AEFB \frac{C A}{B C} = \frac{A E}{F B}
Since CF=CEC F = C E while b>ab > a, it follows that AE=b(ba)a+bA E = \frac{b(b-a)}{a+b} so that EC=2aba+bE C = \frac{2 a b}{a+b}.

Finally,
DE=CE2CD2=ab(c2(ab)2)a+b D E = \sqrt{C E^{2} - C D^{2}} = \frac{\sqrt{a b \left(c^{2} - (a-b)^{2}\right)}}{a+b}

Plugging in a=20a=20, b=80b=80, c=65c=65, we see that AE=48A E = 48, EC=32E C = 32, DE=10D E = 10 as well as AD=52A D = 52, BD=13B D = 13.

Now let PD=xP D = x, QE=yQ E = y. By power of a point about DD and EE, we have x(y+10)=676x(y+10) = 676 and y(x+10)=1536y(x+10) = 1536. Subtracting one from the other, we see that y=x+86y = x + 86. Therefore,
x2+96x676=0 x^{2} + 96 x - 676 = 0
from which
x=48+2745 x = -48 + 2 \sqrt{745}
Finally,
PQ=x+y+10=4745 P Q = x + y + 10 = 4 \sqrt{745}

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