Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.6 AIME Find the answer United States

Problem:

Let ABCDABCD be a rectangle whose vertices are labeled in counterclockwise order with AB=32AB=32 and AD=60AD=60. Rectangle ABCDAB^{\prime}C^{\prime}D^{\prime} is constructed by rotating ABCDABCD counterclockwise about AA by 6060^{\circ}. Given that lines BBBB^{\prime} and DDDD^{\prime} intersect at point XX, compute CXCX.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Solution:

Figure 1

The key claim is the following.
Claim 1. BXD=90\angle BXD = 90^{\circ}.

Proof. We see that ABB=ADD=60\angle ABB^{\prime} = \angle AD^{\prime}D = 60^{\circ} and BAD=90+DAD=150\angle BAD^{\prime} = 90^{\circ} + \angle DAD^{\prime} = 150^{\circ}, from which we get BXD=BXD=90\angle BX D^{\prime} = \angle BXD = 90^{\circ}. Note that the fact that BBBB^{\prime} and DDDD^{\prime} are perpendicular is true regardless of how much we rotate the rectangle.

Now since BAD=BXD\angle BAD = \angle BXD, we establish that XX lies on the circumcircle of ABCDABCD, which has diameter 322+602=68\sqrt{32^{2} + 60^{2}} = 68. Moreover, we have CDX=90+ADD=150\angle CDX = 90^{\circ} + \angle ADD^{\prime} = 150^{\circ}, so we discover that CX=34CX = 34 by applying the extended law of sines to CDX\triangle CDX.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.