Let be an acute triangle with altitudes , . Given that , what is the smallest possible measure of ? (Patrik Bak)
Solution
We denote by and express lengths , , , in terms of and the side lengths , of triangle . The condition rewrites as
which simplifies to . Hence
where the last inequality is for any positive , equivalent with an obvious inequality (alternatively, one can use AM-GM inequality for and ). We proved that angle of any such triangle satisfies , therefore . Since for equilateral triangle, the condition is clearly satisfied (in that case ), the answer is .
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