Fix an equilateral triangle ABC with side length 1. We call (△DEF,△XYZ) a good triangle pair if the points D, E, and F lie in the interior of segments BC, CA, and AB, respectively, the points X, Y, and Z lie on the lines BC, CA, and AB, respectively, and they satisfy the conditions 20DE=22EF=38FD,andDE⊥XY,EF⊥YZ,FD⊥ZX. As (△DEF,△XYZ) runs through all good triangle pairs, determine all possible values of S△DEF1+S△XYZ1.
Solution
(1) First, consider the rotation of 90∘ (clockwise or counterclockwise), centered at an arbitrary point on the plane. Then the images X′, Y′, and Z′ of the points X, Y, and Z, respectively, satisfy X′Y′∥DE,Y′Z′∥EF,Z′X′∥FD. In this case, △X′Y′Z′ and △DEF are directly similar. So, every good triangle pair is directly similar.
(2) **Rotate △XYZ (together with the equilateral triangle ABC) 90∘, and properly rescale and translate the picture so that the image of △XYZ coincides with △DEF. Under this transformation, the points A, B, and C are mapped to points A1, B1, and C1. So there are three points A1, B1, and C1 on the plane satisfying:** * △A1B1C1 is an equilateral triangle; * the points D, E, and F lie on the lines B1C1, C1A1, and A1B1; and * A1B1⊥AB, B1C1⊥BC, and C1A1⊥CA. From this, we see that the points A1, B1, and C1 lie on the circumcircles of △AEF, △BFD, and △CDE, respectively. Moreover, A1, B1, and C1 are the antipodes of A, B, and C in the corresponding circles; see the picture below.
(3) Note that S△ABC:S△XYZ=S△A1B1C1:S△DEF. So it suffices to compute the ratio of S△ABC+S△A1B1C1 to S△DEF. We have S△ABC=S△DEF+S△EAF+S△FBD+S△DCE,S△A1B1C1=S△DEF+S△EA1F+S△FB1D+S△DC1E, Here the right hand sides are expressed in terms of oriented areas. Since the two equilateral triangles on the left hand side are directly similar, the signs on the areas are the same. Using the properties of antipodes, if we denote the circumcenters of △AEF, △BFD, and △CDE by O1, O2, and O3, respectively, then the condition "D, E, and F lie on the interior of three sides" ensures that the three circumcenters O1, O2, and O3 lie outside of △DEF. So we have the following equality of areas: S△ABC+S△A1B1C1=2(S△DEF+S△EO1F+S△FO2D+S△DO3E). In fact, △O1O2O3 is the outer Napoleon triangle of △DEF; its area is exactly the half of sum of the areas in the parentheses.
(4) So we need to compute, for a triangle with side length ratio 20:22:38, the ratio of the area of the hexagon formed by the vertices of the triangle and the vertices of the outer Napoleon triangle, to the area of the original triangle. By Heron formula, the area of a triangle with side lengths 20, 22, 38 is 40⋅(40−20)⋅(40−22)⋅(40−38)=1202. On the other hand, S△EO1F+S△FO2D+S△DO3E=33⋅(112+102+192)=1943. So ====S△DEF1+S△XYZ1S△ABC1(S△DEFS△ABC+S△XYZS△ABC)S△ABC1S△DEFS△ABC+S△A1B1C13412022(1202+1943)15972+403
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