Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Triangle ABCABC has AB=4AB = 4, BC=5BC = 5, and CA=6CA = 6. Points AA', BB', CC' are such that BCB'C' is tangent to the circumcircle of ABC\triangle ABC at AA, CAC'A' is tangent to the circumcircle at BB, and ABA'B' is tangent to the circumcircle at CC. Find the length BCB'C'.

Solution

Solution:

Answer: 803\frac{80}{3}

Note that by equal tangents, BA=BCB'A = B'C, CA=CBC'A = C'B, and AB=ACA'B = A'C. Moreover, since the line segments ABA'B', BCB'C', and CAC'A' are tangent to the circumcircle of ABCABC at CC, AA, and BB respectively, we have that ABC=ACB=A\angle A'BC = \angle A'CB = \angle A, BAC=BCA=B\angle B'AC = \angle B'CA = \angle B, and CBA=CAB=C\angle C'BA = \angle C'AB = \angle C.

By drawing the altitudes of the isosceles triangles BCABC'A and ACBAC'B, we therefore have that CA=2/cosCC'A = 2 / \cos C and BA=3/cosBB'A = 3 / \cos B.

Now, by the Law of Cosines, we have that
cosB=a2+c2b22ac=25+16362×5×4=18cosC=a2+b2c22ab=25+36162×5×6=34. \begin{aligned} & \cos B = \frac{a^2 + c^2 - b^2}{2ac} = \frac{25 + 16 - 36}{2 \times 5 \times 4} = \frac{1}{8} \\ & \cos C = \frac{a^2 + b^2 - c^2}{2ab} = \frac{25 + 36 - 16}{2 \times 5 \times 6} = \frac{3}{4}. \end{aligned}
Therefore,
BC=CA+BA=2(43)+3×8=803 B'C' = C'A + B'A = 2 \left(\frac{4}{3}\right) + 3 \times 8 = \frac{80}{3}

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