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Geometry Difficulty 3.5 AMC 10/12 Find the answer Italy

Problem:

Given a triangle ABCABC with sides AB=13AB = 13, BC=14BC = 14 and AC=15AC = 15, let HH be the foot of the altitude relative to side BCBC, MM the midpoint of BCBC and NN the midpoint of AMAM. What is the length of HNHN?

Pick one

Solution

Solution:

The answer is (C). Triangle AHMAHM is right-angled, so we have HN=AM/2\overline{HN} = \overline{AM} / 2 because HNHN is the median relative to the hypotenuse. Setting BH=x\overline{BH} = x we have HC=BCBH=14x\overline{HC} = \overline{BC} - \overline{BH} = 14 - x and, by the Pythagorean theorem, AH2=AB2BH2=AC2HC2\overline{AH}^2 = \overline{AB}^2 - \overline{BH}^2 = \overline{AC}^2 - \overline{HC}^2, that is 132x2=152(14x)213^2 - x^2 = 15^2 - (14 - x)^2, from which we obtain x=5x = 5. We then have
AH=13252=12,AM=AH2+HM2=122+22=148=237, \overline{AH} = \sqrt{13^2 - 5^2} = 12, \quad \overline{AM} = \sqrt{\overline{AH}^2 + \overline{HM}^2} = \sqrt{12^2 + 2^2} = \sqrt{148} = 2\sqrt{37},
so HN=37\overline{HN} = \sqrt{37}.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.