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Belarusian Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it Belarus

A triangle ABCABC is inscribed in the parabola y=x2y = x^2. Let aa, bb, cc be the abscissae of the midpoints of its sides.
Find the radius of the circumcircle of △ABC\triangle ABC.

Solution

Answers: R=0.5(1+4a2)(1+4b2)(1+4c2)R = 0.5\sqrt{(1 + 4a^2)(1 + 4b^2)(1 + 4c^2)}.

Let A(l;l2)A(l; l^2), B(m;m2)B(m; m^2), C(n;n2)C(n; n^2) be coordinates of the vertices of the triangle ABCABC. Then
AB=(m−l)2+(m2−l2)2=∣m−l∣1+(m+l)2=∣m−l∣1+4c2, AB = \sqrt{(m-l)^2 + (m^2-l^2)^2} = |m-l|\sqrt{1+(m+l)^2} = |m-l|\sqrt{1+4c^2},
since c=0.5(m+l)c = 0.5(m + l).
Similarly, BC=∣m−n∣1+4a2BC = |m - n|\sqrt{1 + 4a^2} and AC=∣n−l∣1+4b2AC = |n - l|\sqrt{1 + 4b^2}.

Further, it is easy to calculate that S(ABC)=0.5∣(m−l)(l−n)(n−m)∣S(ABC) = 0.5|(m - l)(l - n)(n - m)|.

Now we find the circumradius using the formula

R = AB BC\text{AB BC} CA}{4S(ABC)} = 12(1\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{(1} + 4a^2)(1 + 4b^2)(1 + 4c^2)}.

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