Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /940 of 1394

Geometry Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
How many noncongruent triangles are there with one side of length 2020, one side of length 1717, and one 6060^{\circ} angle?

Solution

Solution:
There are 33 possible vertices that can have an angle of 6060^{\circ}, we will name them. Call the vertex where the sides of length 2020 and 1717 meet α\alpha, denote the vertex where 1717 doesn't meet 2020 by β\beta, and the final vertex, which meets 2020 but not 1717, we denote by γ\gamma.

The law of cosines states that if we have a triangle, then we have the equation c2=a2+b22abcosCc^{2} = a^{2} + b^{2} - 2ab \cos C where CC is the angle between aa and bb. But cos60=12\cos 60^{\circ} = \frac{1}{2} so this becomes c2=a2+b2abc^{2} = a^{2} + b^{2} - ab.

We then try satisfying this equation for the 33 possible vertices and find that, for α\alpha the equation reads c2=400+289340=349c^{2} = 400 + 289 - 340 = 349 so that c=349c = \sqrt{349}.

For β\beta we find that 400=289+b217b400 = 289 + b^{2} - 17b or rather b217b111=0b^{2} - 17b - 111 = 0; this is a quadratic, solving we find that it has two roots b=17±289+4442b = \frac{17 \pm \sqrt{289 + 444}}{2}, but since 733>17\sqrt{733} > 17 only one of these roots is positive.

We can also see that this isn't congruent to the other triangle we had, as for both the triangles the shortest side has length 1717, and so if they were congruent the lengths of all sides would need to be equal, but 18<349<1918 < \sqrt{349} < 19 and since 232<73323^{2} < 733 clearly 17±289+4442>17+232=20\frac{17 \pm \sqrt{289 + 444}}{2} > \frac{17 + 23}{2} = 20 and so the triangles aren't congruent.

If we try applying the law of cosines to γ\gamma however, we get the equation 289=a2+40020a289 = a^{2} + 400 - 20a which we can rewrite as a220a+111=0a^{2} - 20a + 111 = 0 which has no real solutions, as the discriminant 4004×111=44400 - 4 \times 111 = -44 is negative.

Thus, γ\gamma cannot be 6060^{\circ}, and there are exactly two noncongruent triangles with side lengths 2020 and 1717 with an angle being 6060^{\circ}.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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