Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Triangle ABCA B C has sidelengths AB=14A B=14, AC=13A C=13, and BC=15B C=15. Point DD is chosen in the interior of AB\overline{A B} and point EE is selected uniformly at random from AD\overline{A D}. Point FF is then defined to be the intersection point of the perpendicular to AB\overline{A B} at EE and the union of segments AC\overline{A C} and BC\overline{B C}. Suppose that DD is chosen such that the expected value of the length of EF\overline{E F} is maximized. Find ADA D.

Solution

Solution:

Let GG be the intersection of the altitude to AB\overline{A B} at point DD with ACBC\overline{A C} \cup \overline{B C}. We first note that the maximal expected value is obtained when DG=[ADGC]ADD G=\frac{[A D G C]}{A D}, where [P][P] denotes the area of polygon PP. Note that if DGD G were not equal to this value, we could move DD either closer or further from AA and increase the value of the fraction, which is the expected value of EFE F. We note that this equality can only occur if DD is on the side of the altitude to AB\overline{A B} nearest point BB. Multiplying both sides of this equation by ADA D yields ADDG=[ADGC]A D \cdot D G=[A D G C], which can be interpreted as meaning that the area of the rectangle with base AD\overline{A D} and height DG\overline{D G} must have area equal to that of quadrilateral ADGCA D G C. We can now solve this problem with algebra.

Let x=BDx=B D. We first compute the area of the rectangle with base AD\overline{A D} and height DG\overline{D G}. We have that AD=ABBD=14xA D=A B-B D=14-x. By decomposing the 1313-1414-1515 triangle into a 55-1212-1313 triangle and a 99-1212-1515 triangle, and using a similarity argument, we find that DG=43xD G=\frac{4}{3} x. Thus, the area of this rectangle is 43x(14x)=563x43x2\frac{4}{3} x(14-x)=\frac{56}{3} x-\frac{4}{3} x^{2}.

We next compute the area of quadrilateral ADGCA D G C. We note that [ADGC]=[ABC][BDG][A D G C]=[A B C]-[B D G]. We have that [ABC]=12(12)(14)=84[A B C]=\frac{1}{2}(12)(14)=84. We have BD=xB D=x and DG=43xD G=\frac{4}{3} x, so [BDG]=12(x)(43x)=23x2[B D G]=\frac{1}{2}(x)\left(\frac{4}{3} x\right)=\frac{2}{3} x^{2}. Therefore, we have [ADGC]=[ABC][BDG]=8423x2[A D G C]=[A B C]-[B D G]=84-\frac{2}{3} x^{2}.

Equating these two areas, we have
563x43x2=8423x2 \frac{56}{3} x-\frac{4}{3} x^{2}=84-\frac{2}{3} x^{2}

or, simplifying,
x228x+126=0 x^{2}-28 x+126=0

Solving yields x=14±70x=14 \pm \sqrt{70}, but 14+7014+\sqrt{70} exceeds ABA B, so we discard it as an extraneous root. Thus, BD=1470B D=14-\sqrt{70} and
AD=ABBD=14(1470)=70 A D=A B-B D=14-(14-\sqrt{70})=\sqrt{70}

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