Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Consider two equilateral triangles ABCABC and MNPMNP with ABMNAB \parallel MN, BCNPBC \parallel NP and CAPMCA \parallel PM, intersecting over a convex hexagon. The distances between the pairs of parallel sides do not exceed 11. Show that at least one of the triangles has the side length less than or equal to 3\sqrt{3}.

Solution

Let PP be an interior point to the hexagon, therefore also interior to the triangles. Denote by aa, respectively bb, the lengths of the sides of the two triangles. The sum of the distances from PP to the sides of an equilateral triangle is equal to the altitude of the triangle, hence the sum of the distances from PP to the lines ABAB, BCBC, CACA, MNMN, NPNP, PMPM is (a+b)32(a + b) \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}.

On the other hand, the sum of the distances from PP to the parallel lines ABAB and MNMN is precisely the distance between those lines, hence at most 11. It follows that (a+b)323(a + b) \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} \le 3, so a+b23a + b \le 2\sqrt{3}, whence a3a \le \sqrt{3} or b3b \le \sqrt{3}, which is what was asked to be proved.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.