Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Soviet Union

Problem:

The distance from AA to BB is dd kilometers. A plane PP is flying with constant speed, height and direction from AA to BB. Over a period of 1 second the angle PABPAB changes by α\alpha degrees and the angle PBAPBA by β\beta degrees. What is the minimal speed of the plane?

Solution

Solution:

Answer: 20πd(αβ)20\pi d\sqrt{(\alpha\beta)} kilometers per hour.

Let the plane be at height hh and a (horizontal) distance yy from AA. Let the angle PABPAB be θ+α\theta + \alpha and the angle PBAPBA be ϕ\phi. After 1 second, the angle PABPAB is θ\theta and the angle PBAPBA is ϕ+β\phi + \beta. We have immediately that:

h/y=tan(θ+α),h/(dy)=tanϕ,h/(y+x)=tanθ,h/(dyx)=tan(ϕ+β). h / y = \tan(\theta + \alpha),\quad h / (d - y) = \tan\phi,\quad h / (y + x) = \tan\theta,\quad h / (d - y - x) = \tan(\phi + \beta).

Eliminating θ\theta, we obtain:
h/y=(tanα+tanθ)/(1tanαtanθ)=(a(y+x)+h)/(y+xah) h / y = (\tan\alpha + \tan\theta) / (1 - \tan\alpha \tan\theta) = (a(y + x) + h) / (y + x - ah)
where a=tanαa = \tan\alpha. Hence
x=a(h2+y2)/(hay). x = a(h^2 + y^2) / (h - ay).
Similarly, eliminating ϕ\phi, we obtain
x=b(h2+(dy)2)/(h+(dy)b). x = b(h^2 + (d - y)^2) / (h + (d - y)b).

At this point I do not see how to make further progress without approximating. But approximating seems reasonable, since α\alpha and β\beta, are certainly small, at least when expressed in radians. For example, typical values might be 10,000 ft for hh and more than 10 miles for yy or dyd- y and 500 mph for the aircraft speed. That gives x=0.14x = 0.14 miles, so x/y=0.014x / y = 0.014 and x/h=0.07x / h = 0.07. So, let us neglect a/ha / h, b/hb / h, a/ya / y etc. Then we get the simplified expressions:
x=a(h2+y2)/h=b(h2+(dy)2)/h. x = a(h^2 + y^2) / h = b(h^2 + (d - y)^2) / h.

If a=ba = b, then we quickly obtain y=d/2y = d / 2, h=d/2h = d / 2, x=adx = ad. Assume a>ba > b. Then we can solve for hh, substitute back in and obtain an expression for xx in terms of yy. It is convenient to divide through by dd and to write X=x/dX = x / d, Y=y/dY = y / d. Note that since we are assuming a>ba > b, we require Y<1/(1+(a/b))Y < 1 / (1 + \sqrt{(a / b)}). After some manipulation we obtain:
X=ab(12Y)/((ab)(b(1Y)2aY2)). X = ab(1 - 2Y) / \sqrt{((a - b)(b(1 - Y)^2 - aY^2))}.
Differentiating, we find that there is a minimum at Y=b/(a+b)Y = b / (a + b), which is in the allowed range, and that the minimum value of XX is (ab)\sqrt{(ab)}. By symmetry, we obtain the same result for a<ba < b and we notice that it is also true for a=ba = b. So in all cases we have that the minimum value of xx is d(ab)d\sqrt{(ab)}.

We are assuming α\alpha and β\beta are small, so we may take a=αa = \alpha, b=βb = \beta. However, the question specified that α\alpha and β\beta were measured in degrees, so to obtain the final answer we must convert, giving:
x=d(π/180)(αβ), x = d(\pi / 180) \sqrt{(\alpha\beta)},
and hence
speed=20πd(αβ) speed = 20\pi d\sqrt{(\alpha\beta)}
kilometers per hour.

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