Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.3 AIME Find the answer United States

Problem:
A tetrahedron has all its faces triangles with sides 13,14,1513, 14, 15. What is its volume?

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

Solution

Solution:
Let ABCABC be a triangle with AB=13AB = 13, BC=14BC = 14, CA=15CA = 15. Let ADAD, BEBE be altitudes. Then BD=5BD = 5, CD=9CD = 9. (If you don't already know this, it can be deduced from the Pythagorean Theorem: CD2BD2=(CD2+AD2)(BD2+AD2)=AC2AB2=56CD^{2} - BD^{2} = (CD^{2} + AD^{2}) - (BD^{2} + AD^{2}) = AC^{2} - AB^{2} = 56, while CD+BD=BC=14CD + BD = BC = 14, giving CDBD=56/14=4CD - BD = 56 / 14 = 4, and now solve the linear system.) Also, AD=AB2BD2=12AD = \sqrt{AB^{2} - BD^{2}} = 12. Similar reasoning gives AE=33/5AE = 33 / 5, EC=42/5EC = 42 / 5.

Figure 1

Now let FF be the point on BCBC such that CF=BD=5CF = BD = 5, and let GG be on ACAC such that CG=AE=33/5CG = AE = 33 / 5. Imagine placing face ABCABC flat on the table, and letting XX be a point in space with CX=13CX = 13, BX=14BX = 14. By mentally rotating triangle BCXBCX about line BCBC, we can see that XX lies on the plane perpendicular to BCBC through FF. In particular, this holds if XX is the fourth vertex of our tetrahedron ABCXABCX. Similarly, XX lies on the plane perpendicular to ACAC through GG. Let the mutual intersection of these two planes and plane ABCABC be HH. Then XHXH is the altitude of the tetrahedron.

To find XHXH, extend FHFH to meet ACAC at II. Then CFICDA\triangle CFI \sim \triangle CDA, a 3-4-5 triangle, so FI=CF4/3=20/3FI = CF \cdot 4 / 3 = 20 / 3, and CI=CF5/3=25/3CI = CF \cdot 5 / 3 = 25 / 3. Then IG=CICG=26/15IG = CI - CG = 26 / 15, and HI=IG5/4=13/6HI = IG \cdot 5 / 4 = 13 / 6. This leads to HF=FIHI=9/2HF = FI - HI = 9 / 2, and finally XH=XF2HF2=AD2HF2=355/2XH = \sqrt{XF^{2} - HF^{2}} = \sqrt{AD^{2} - HF^{2}} = 3 \sqrt{55} / 2.

Now XABCXABC is a tetrahedron whose base ABC\triangle ABC has area ADBC/2=1214/2=84AD \cdot BC / 2 = 12 \cdot 14 / 2 = 84, and whose height XHXH is 355/23 \sqrt{55} / 2, so its volume is (84)(355/2)/3=4255(84)(3 \sqrt{55} / 2) / 3 = 42 \sqrt{55}.

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