Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let ABCDABCD be a quadrilateral inscribed in the unit circle such that BAD\angle BAD is 3030 degrees. Let mm denote the minimum value of CP+PQ+QCCP + PQ + QC, where PP and QQ may be any points lying along rays ABAB and ADAD, respectively. Determine the maximum value of mm.

Solution

Figure 1
For a fixed quadrilateral ABCDABCD as described, we first show that mm, the minimum possible length of CP+PQ+QCCP + PQ + QC, equals the length of ACAC. Reflect BB, CC, and PP across line ADAD to points EE, FF, and RR, respectively, and then reflect DD and FF across AEAE to points GG and HH, respectively. These two reflections combine to give a 6060^{\circ} rotation around AA, so triangle ACHACH is equilateral. It also follows that RHRH is a 6060^{\circ} rotation of PCPC around AA, so, in particular, these segments have the same length. Because QR=QPQR = QP by reflection,
CP+PQ+QC=CQ+QR+RH CP + PQ + QC = CQ + QR + RH
The latter is the length of a broken path CQRHCQRH from CC to HH, and by the "shortest path is a straight line" principle, this total length is at least as long as CH=CACH = CA. (More directly, this follows from the triangle inequality: (CQ+QR)+RHCR+RHCH(CQ + QR) + RH \geq CR + RH \geq CH.) Therefore, the lower bound mACm \geq AC indeed holds. To see that this is actually an equality, note that choosing QQ as the intersection of segment CHCH with ray ADAD, and choosing PP so that its reflection RR is the intersection of CHCH with ray AEAE, aligns path CQRHCQRH with segment CHCH, thus obtaining the desired minimum m=ACm = AC.

We may conclude that the largest possible value of mm is the largest possible length of ACAC, namely 22: the length of a diameter of the circle.

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