Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /147 of 740

, 2017

Geometry Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
Find the minimum possible value of
5842x+1491401x2 \sqrt{58-42x} + \sqrt{149-140\sqrt{1-x^{2}}}
where 1x1-1 \leq x \leq 1.

Solution

Solution:
Substitute x=cosθx = \cos \theta and 1x2=sinθ\sqrt{1-x^{2}} = \sin \theta, and notice that 58=32+7258 = 3^{2} + 7^{2}, 42=23742 = 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 7, 149=72+102149 = 7^{2} + 10^{2}, and 140=2710140 = 2 \cdot 7 \cdot 10. Therefore the first term is an application of Law of Cosines on a triangle that has two sides 33 and 77 with an angle measuring θ\theta between them to find the length of the third side; similarly, the second is for a triangle with two sides 77 and 1010 that have an angle measuring 90θ90^{\circ} - \theta between them. "Gluing" these two triangles together along their sides of length 77 so that the merged triangles form a right angle, we see that the minimum length of the sum of their third sides occurs when the glued triangles form a right triangle. This right triangle has legs of length 33 and 1010, so its hypotenuse has length 109\sqrt{109}.

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