1. Amy has drawn three points in a plane, A, B, and C, such that AB=BC=CA=6. Amy is allowed to draw a new point if it is the circumcenter of a triangle whose vertices she has already drawn. For example, she can draw the circumcenter O of triangle ABC, and then afterwards she can draw the circumcenter of triangle ABO.
a) Prove that Amy can eventually draw a point whose distance from a previously drawn point is greater than 7.
b) Prove that Amy can eventually draw a point whose distance from a previously drawn point is greater than 2019.
(Recall that the circumcenter of a triangle is the center of the circle that passes through its three vertices.)
Solution
Solution:
(a) Given triangle △ABC, Amy can draw the following points: - O is the circumcenter of △ABC - A1 is the circumcenter of △BOC - A2 is the circumcenter of △OBA1 - A3 is the circumcenter of △BA2A1
We claim that AA3>7. We present two ways to prove this claim.
First Method: By symmetry of the equilateral triangle △ABC, we have ∠AOB=∠BOC=∠COA=120∘. Since OB=OC and A1B=A1O=A1C, we deduce that △A1OB≅△A1OC, and hence ∠BOA1=∠COA1=60∘. Therefore, since △A1OB is isosceles, it must be equilateral. As we found for our original triangle, we find ∠BA2A1=120∘, and so ∠A2BA1=∠A2A1B=30∘ (since A2B=A2A1). Also we see that ∠OBA2=30∘=∠OBC, which shows that A2 lies on the segment BC.
Applying the Law of Sines to △BOC, we obtain OC=sin(∠BOC)BCsin(∠OBC)=3/26(1/2)=23. By symmetry, we see that (i) OA1 is the bisector of ∠BOC and the perpendicular bisector of BC, and (ii) the three points A, O, and A1 are collinear. Therefore A1A=A1O+OA=2OA=43.
The same argument that we used to show △A1OB is equilateral with side AC/3 shows that △A3A2A1 is equilateral with side OB/3=2. Thus ∠A3A1O=∠OA1B+∠A3A1A2−∠A2A1B=60∘+60∘−30∘=90∘. Hence we can apply the Pythagorean Theorem: A3A=(A3A1)2+(A1A)2=22+(43)2=52>49=7.
Second Method: (An alternative to writing the justifications of the constructions in the First Method is to use analytic geometry. Once the following coordinates are found using the kind of reasoning in the First Method or by other means, the writeup can justify them succinctly by computing distances.)
Label (0,0) as B, (6,0) as C, and (3,3) as A. Then we have AB=BC=CA=6.
The circumcenter O of △ABC is (3,3); this can be verified by observing OA=OB=OC=23. Next, the point A1=(3,−3) satisfies A1O=A1B=A1C=23, so A1 is the circumcenter of △BOC.
The point A2=(2,0) satisfies A2O=A2B=A2A1=2, so this is the circumcenter of △OBA1.
And the point A3=(1,−3) satisfies A3B=A3A2=A3A1=2, so this is the circumcenter of △BA2A1.
Finally, we compute A3A=52>49=7, and part (a) is proved.
(b) In part (a), using either method we find that OA3=4>23=OA. By rotating the construction of part (a) by ±120∘ about O, Amy can construct B3 and C3 such that △A3B3C3 is equilateral with circumcenter O and circumradius 4, which is strictly bigger than the circumradius 23 of △ABC. Amy can repeat this process starting from △A3B3C3. After n iterations of the process, Amy will have drawn the vertices of an equilateral triangle whose circumradius is 23(234)n, which is bigger than 2019 when n is sufficiently large.
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