Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

In the triangle ABCABC we have AB=1|AB| = 1 and ABC=120\angle ABC = 120^\circ. The perpendicular line to ABAB at BB meets ACAC at DD such that DC=1|DC| = 1. Find the length of ADAD.

Solution

Let x=ADx = |AD| and y=BCy = |BC|. From ADB\triangle ADB we obtain sin(ADB)=1x\sin(\angle ADB) = \frac{1}{x} and from BDC\triangle BDC we get sin(BDC)y=sin(30)1=12\frac{\sin(\angle BDC)}{y} = \frac{\sin(30^\circ)}{1} = \frac{1}{2}. Since sin(ADB)=sin(BDC)\sin(\angle ADB) = \sin(\angle BDC), this gives 1x=y2\frac{1}{x} = \frac{y}{2}, hence y=2xy = \frac{2}{x}.

Figure 1

The cosine theorem for ABC\triangle ABC gives
12=cos(ABC)=1+y2(1+x)22y=1+(2x)2(1+x)24x -\frac{1}{2} = \cos(\angle ABC) = \frac{1 + y^2 - (1+x)^2}{2y} = \frac{1 + \left(\frac{2}{x}\right)^2 - (1+x)^2}{\frac{4}{x}}
Simplifying, we obtain x4+2x32x4=0x^4 + 2x^3 - 2x - 4 = 0. Rewriting this polynomial as x(x32)+2(x32)=(x32)(x+2)x(x^3 - 2) + 2(x^3 - 2) = (x^3 - 2)(x + 2), we see that x=2x = \sqrt{2}.

Figure 1

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