GeometryDifficulty 5.1AIME, harderFind the answerChina
Suppose that a ball with radius 1 moves freely inside a regular tetrahedron with edge length 46. Then the area of the inner surface of the container, which the ball can never touch, is ______.
A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.
Solution
As shown in Fig. 1, consider the situation where the ball is in a corner of the container. Draw the plane A1B1C1∥ABC, tangent to the ball at point D. Then the ball center O is also the center of the tetrahedron P−A1B1C1, with PO⊥A1B1C1 and the foot point D being the center of △A1B1C1.
Since
VP−A1B1C1=31×S△A1B1C1×PD=4×VO−A1B1C1=4×31×S△A1B1C1×OD, we have PD=4OD=4r, where r is the radius of the ball. It follows that PO=PD−OD=3r. Suppose that the ball is tangent to the plane PAB at point P1. Then we have PP1=PO2−OP12=(3r)2−r2=22r. As shown in Fig. 2, it is easy to see that the locus of the ball on the plane PAB is also a regular triangle, denoted by P1EF. Through P1 draw P1M⊥PA with point M on PA. Then ∠MPP1=6π, and PM=PP1×cos∠MPP1=22r×23=6r.
It follows that P1E=PA−2PM=a−26r, where a=PA. Now, the space on PAB which the ball will never touch is the shaded part of Fig. 2, and its size is equal to S△PAB−S△P1EF=43(a2−(a−26r)2)=32ar−63r2=243−63=183, since r=1 and a=46 under given conditions. Then the total untouched area is 4×183=723.
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Source: MathNet,
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