Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /129 of 377

Geometry Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

In triangle ABCABC with altitude ADAD, BAC=45\angle BAC = 45^{\circ}, DB=3DB = 3, and CD=2CD = 2. Find the area of triangle ABCABC.

Solution

Solution:

Suppose first that DD lies between BB and CC. Let ABCABC be inscribed in circle ω\omega, and extend ADAD to intersect ω\omega again at EE. Note that AA subtends a quarter of the circle, so in particular, the chord through CC perpendicular to BCBC and parallel to ADAD has length BC=5BC = 5. Therefore, AD=5+DEAD = 5 + DE. By power of a point, 6=BDDC=ADDE=AD25AD6 = BD \cdot DC = AD \cdot DE = AD^2 - 5AD, implying AD=6AD = 6, so the area of ABCABC is 12BCAD=15\frac{1}{2} BC \cdot AD = 15.

If DD does not lie between BB and CC, then BC=1BC = 1, so AA lies on a circle of radius 2/2\sqrt{2}/2 through BB and CC. But then it is easy to check that the perpendicular to BCBC through DD cannot intersect the circle, a contradiction.

Figure 1

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.