Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2013

Geometry Difficulty 7.8 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Saudi Arabia

ABCDABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral such that AB=BC=CAAB = BC = CA. Diagonals ACAC and BDBD intersect at EE. Given that BE=19BE = 19 and ED=6ED = 6, find the possible values of ADAD.

Solution

Applying Ptolemy relation to the cyclic quadrilateral ABCDABCD, we get
ABCD+BCDA=ACBD AB \cdot CD + BC \cdot DA = AC \cdot BD
which simplifies to
CD+DA=25 CD + DA = 25
Figure 1
Let a=AB=BC=CAa = AB = BC = CA and x=AEx = AE.
We have, from similarity of triangles AEDAED and BECBEC, that
DAa=x19 \frac{DA}{a} = \frac{x}{19}
We have, from similarity of triangles CEDCED and BEABEA, that
CDa=ax19. \frac{CD}{a} = \frac{a - x}{19}.
We deduce that
a19=x19+ax19=DAa+CDa=25a, \frac{a}{19} = \frac{x}{19} + \frac{a - x}{19} = \frac{DA}{a} + \frac{CD}{a} = \frac{25}{a},
and therefore a=519a = 5\sqrt{19}.
Applying sine law on the circumcircle of ABCDABCD, we obtain
sinBAD25=sinBAC519=57190. \frac{\sin \angle BAD}{25} = \frac{\sin \angle BAC}{5\sqrt{19}} = \frac{\sqrt{57}}{190}.
Hence sinBAD=55738\sin \angle BAD = \frac{5\sqrt{57}}{38}, that is
cosBAD=±38225×5738=±1938. \cos \angle BAD = \pm \frac{\sqrt{38^2 - 25 \times 57}}{38} = \pm \frac{\sqrt{19}}{38}.
Applying cosine law to triangle ABDABD, we obtain
252=25×19+AD2±2×519×AD×1938, 25^2 = 25 \times 19 + AD^2 \pm 2 \times 5\sqrt{19} \times AD \times \frac{\sqrt{19}}{38},
and therefore, AD=10AD = 10 or 1515.

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