Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /677 of 740

, 2024

Geometry Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Isabella the geologist discovers a diamond deep underground via an X-ray machine. The diamond has the shape of a convex cyclic pentagon PABCDP A B C D with ADBCA D \| B C. Soon after the discovery, her X-ray breaks, and she only recovers partial information about its dimensions. She knows that AD=70A D=70, BC=55B C=55, PA:PD=3:4P A: P D=3: 4, and PB:PC=5:6P B: P C=5: 6. Compute PBP B.

Figure 1

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Solution:

Figure 2
Let X=PBADX=P B \cap A D and Y=PCADY=P C \cap A D. Let AX=pA X=p, XY=qX Y=q, and YD=rY D=r. From ABCDA B \| C D, we get that AB=CDA B=C D, and so APX=DPY\angle A P X=\angle D P Y. Thus, we may apply Steiner ratio theorem on PAD\triangle P A D and PXY\triangle P X Y to get that
p(p+q)r(q+r)=3242,p(q+r)r(p+q)=5262. \frac{p(p+q)}{r(q+r)}=\frac{3^{2}}{4^{2}}, \quad \frac{p(q+r)}{r(p+q)}=\frac{5^{2}}{6^{2}} .
Multiplying these two equations gives p:r=5:8p: r=5: 8, and using each individual equations gives p:q:r=5:22:8p: q : r=5: 22: 8. Thus, p=10p=10, q=44q=44, and r=16r=16.

Now, from XYBCX Y \| B C, we have PX:XB=4:1P X: X B=4: 1, so set PX=4tP X=4 t and XB=tX B=t. However, 4t2=PYYC=1060=6004 t^{2}=P Y \cdot Y C=10 \cdot 60=600. Solving this gives t=150=56t=\sqrt{150}=5 \sqrt{6}, hence PB=5t=256P B=5 t=25 \sqrt{6}.

Solution 2

Solution:

Figure 3
Let AB=CD=aA B=C D=a, AC=BD=bA C=B D=b, AP3=DP4=x\frac{A P}{3}=\frac{D P}{4}=x, and BP5=CP6=y\frac{B P}{5}=\frac{C P}{6}=y. Applying Ptolemy's theorem for the quadrilaterals ABCPA B C P, BCDPB C D P, and ABCDA B C D yields:
b5y=553x+a6yb6y=554x+a5yb2=5570+a2 \begin{aligned} b \cdot 5 y & =55 \cdot 3 x+a \cdot 6 y \\ b \cdot 6 y & =55 \cdot 4 x+a \cdot 5 y \\ b^{2} & =55 \cdot 70+a^{2} \end{aligned}
Equating the left-hand sides of (1) and (2) leads to
6(165x+6ay)=5(220x+5ay)110x=11ay10x=ay 6 \cdot(165 x+6 a y)=5 \cdot(220 x+5 a y) \Longrightarrow 110 x=11 a y \Longrightarrow 10 x=a y
Substituting 220x=22ay220 x=22 a y into (2) implies 27ay=6by27 a y=6 b y, or b=92ab=\frac{9}{2} a. Plugging this into (3), we find a2=200a^{2}=200, so a=102a=10 \sqrt{2}, and therefore b=452b=45 \sqrt{2}. Furthermore, x=y2x=y \sqrt{2} after replacing aa with 10210 \sqrt{2} in (4). We now apply Law of Cosines for ABC\triangle A B C and APC\triangle A P C :
552+(102)22(102)55cosθ=(452)2(32y)2+(6y)2+2(32y)(6y)cosθ=(452)2 \begin{aligned} 55^{2}+(10 \sqrt{2})^{2}-2 \cdot(10 \sqrt{2}) \cdot 55 \cos \theta & =(45 \sqrt{2})^{2} \\ (3 \sqrt{2} y)^{2}+(6 y)^{2}+2 \cdot(3 \sqrt{2} y) \cdot(6 y) \cos \theta & =(45 \sqrt{2})^{2} \end{aligned}
where θ=ABC\theta=\angle A B C. Solving (5) yields
cosθ=552+(102)2(452)22(102)55=328 \cos \theta=\frac{55^{2}+(10 \sqrt{2})^{2}-(45 \sqrt{2})^{2}}{2 \cdot(10 \sqrt{2}) \cdot 55}=-\frac{3 \sqrt{2}}{8}
Plugging this into (6), we can compute:
y2=(452)2(32)2+6227=405027=150 y^{2}=\frac{(45 \sqrt{2})^{2}}{(3 \sqrt{2})^{2}+6^{2}-27}=\frac{4050}{27}=150
Therefore, BP=5y=5150=256B P=5 y=5 \sqrt{150}=25 \sqrt{6}.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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