Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Triangle ABCABC with BAC>90\angle BAC > 90^{\circ} has AB=5AB = 5 and AC=7AC = 7. Points DD and EE lie on segment BCBC such that BD=DE=ECBD = DE = EC. If BAC+DAE=180\angle BAC + \angle DAE = 180^{\circ}, compute BCBC.

Solution

Solution:

Let MM be the midpoint of BCBC, and consider dilating about MM with ratio 13-\frac{1}{3}. This takes BB to EE, CC to DD, and AA to some point AA' on AMAM with AM=3AMAM = 3A'M. Then the angle condition implies DAE+EAD=180\angle DAE + \angle EA'D = 180^{\circ}, so ADAEAD A' E is cyclic. Then by power of a point, we get
AM23=AMAM=DMEM=BC236 \frac{AM^2}{3} = AM \cdot A'M = DM \cdot EM = \frac{BC^2}{36}
But we also know AM2=2AB2+2AC2BC24AM^2 = \frac{2AB^2 + 2AC^2 - BC^2}{4}, so we have 2AB2+2AC2BC212=BC236\frac{2AB^2 + 2AC^2 - BC^2}{12} = \frac{BC^2}{36}, which rearranges to BC2=32(AB2+AC2)BC^2 = \frac{3}{2}(AB^2 + AC^2). Plugging in the values for ABAB and ACAC gives BC=111BC = \sqrt{111}.

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