GeometryDifficulty 5.9AIME, harderProve itUnited States
Problem:
Triangle ABC has sidelengths AB=14, AC=13, and BC=15. Point D is chosen in the interior of AB and point E is selected uniformly at random from AD. Point F is then defined to be the intersection point of the perpendicular to AB at E and the union of segments AC and BC. Suppose that D is chosen such that the expected value of the length of EF is maximized. Find AD.
Solution
Solution:
Let G be the intersection of the altitude to AB at point D with AC∪BC. We first note that the maximal expected value is obtained when DG=AD[ADGC], where [P] denotes the area of polygon P. Note that if DG were not equal to this value, we could move D either closer or further from A and increase the value of the fraction, which is the expected value of EF. We note that this equality can only occur if D is on the side of the altitude to AB nearest point B. Multiplying both sides of this equation by AD yields AD⋅DG=[ADGC], which can be interpreted as meaning that the area of the rectangle with base AD and height DG must have area equal to that of quadrilateral ADGC. We can now solve this problem with algebra.
Let x=BD. We first compute the area of the rectangle with base AD and height DG. We have that AD=AB−BD=14−x. By decomposing the 13-14-15 triangle into a 5-12-13 triangle and a 9-12-15 triangle, and using a similarity argument, we find that DG=34x. Thus, the area of this rectangle is 34x(14−x)=356x−34x2.
We next compute the area of quadrilateral ADGC. We note that [ADGC]=[ABC]−[BDG]. We have that [ABC]=21(12)(14)=84. We have BD=x and DG=34x, so [BDG]=21(x)(34x)=32x2. Therefore, we have [ADGC]=[ABC]−[BDG]=84−32x2.
Equating these two areas, we have 356x−34x2=84−32x2
or, simplifying, x2−28x+126=0
Solving yields x=14±70, but 14+70 exceeds AB, so we discard it as an extraneous root. Thus, BD=14−70 and AD=AB−BD=14−(14−70)=70
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