Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it Brazil

The sidelengths and area of a triangle are all integer numbers. Find the minimum value of its area.

Solution

The 334455 triangle has area 342=6\frac{3 \cdot 4}{2} = 6. We will prove that no other triangle with integer sidelengths and area has smaller area.
Let aa, bb, cc be the sidelengths. Then its area is S=s(sa)(sb)(sc)S = \sqrt{s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)}, where s=a+b+c2s = \frac{a+b+c}{2}. Since the area is also an integer, a+b+ca+b+c is even, and ss, sas-a, sbs-b, scs-c are all integers.
Now, notice that the triangle cannot be equilateral, since equilateral triangles with an integer side have irrational area. So, at least two of the three integer numbers sas-a, sbs-b, scs-c are distinct and, since s=(sa)+(sb)+(sc)1+1+2=4s = (s-a) + (s-b) + (s-c) \ge 1+1+2 = 4, S4221=8S \ge \sqrt{4 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 1} = \sqrt{8}, so S3S \ge 3.
If SS is odd, s5s \ge 5 and sas-a, sbs-b, scs-c are all odd, so S5311=15S \ge \sqrt{5 \cdot 3 \cdot 1 \cdot 1} = \sqrt{15}, so S5S \ge 5. The only relevant case is S=5S = 5. But this would imply two of ss, sas-a, sbs-b, scs-c being equal to 55, which is impossible.
If SS is even, the only relevant case is S=4S = 4. But then all of ss, sas-a, sbs-b, scs-c are powers of two. So if s>4s > 4 then s8s \ge 8 and sas-a, sbs-b, scs-c would be, in some order, 11, 11, 22, which is not possible because s=(sa)+(sb)+(sc)s = (s-a)+(s-b)+(s-c). If s=4s = 4, the only possibility would be sas-a, sbs-b, scs-c being 11, 11, 22, which does not work either.

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