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Bulgarian Mathematical Competitions

Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Bulgaria

Problem:
Find all triangles ABCABC with integer sidelengths such that the side ACAC is equal to the bisector of ∠BAC\angle BAC and the perimeter of △ABC\triangle ABC is equal to 10p10p, where pp is a prime number.

Solution

Solution:
Using the standard notation for the elements of △ABC\triangle ABC we have b2=la2=bc−a2bc(b+c)2b^{2} = l_{a}^{2} = bc - \frac{a^{2}bc}{(b+c)^{2}}. Hence
a2c=(c−b)(c+b)2 a^{2}c = (c-b)(c+b)^{2}
Let ac=mn, (m,n)=1\frac{a}{c} = \frac{m}{n},\ (m, n) = 1, and bc=rs, (r,s)=1\frac{b}{c} = \frac{r}{s},\ (r, s) = 1. Then (1) implies that
m2n2=(s−r)(s+r)2s3 \frac{m^{2}}{n^{2}} = \frac{(s-r)(s+r)^{2}}{s^{3}}
Since both sides are irreducible fractions, we obtain m2=(s−r)(s+r)2m^{2} = (s-r)(s+r)^{2} and n2=s3n^{2} = s^{3}. The first equality shows that s−rs-r is a perfect square and the second one implies that ss is a perfect square. Set s=t2s = t^{2} and s−r=k2s-r = k^{2}. Then r=t2−k2r = t^{2} - k^{2}, m=k(2t2−k2)m = k\left(2t^{2} - k^{2}\right) and n=t3n = t^{3}.

We now set a=mxa = mx, c=nxc = nx, b=ryb = ry and c=syc = sy. Then nx=synx = sy, i.e. y=txy = tx. Therefore a=xk(2t2−k2)a = xk\left(2t^{2} - k^{2}\right), b=xt(t2−k2)b = x t\left(t^{2} - k^{2}\right) and c=xt3c = x t^{3}, where t>kt > k and (t,k)=1(t, k) = 1. Moreover, one can easily check that these a,ba, b and cc satisfy the triangle inequality.

Now the condition a+b+c=10pa + b + c = 10p becomes x(k+t)(2t2−k2)=10px(k + t)\left(2t^{2} - k^{2}\right) = 10p. Note that (k+t,2t2−k2)=1\left(k + t, 2t^{2} - k^{2}\right) = 1. Then it is easy to see that we have only the following possibilities:
x=1k+t=52t2−k2=2p,x=1k+t=102t2−k2=p,x=2k+t=52t2−k2=p \begin{array}{l|l|l} x = 1 \\ k + t = 5 \\ 2t^{2} - k^{2} = 2p \end{array}, \quad \begin{aligned} & x = 1 \\ & k + t = 10 \\ & 2t^{2} - k^{2} = p \end{aligned}, \quad \begin{aligned} & x = 2 \\ & k + t = 5 \\ & 2t^{2} - k^{2} = p \end{aligned}
A direct verification shows that (x,k,t)=(1,2,3)(x, k, t) = (1, 2, 3), (x,k,t)=(1,3,7)(x, k, t) = (1, 3, 7) and (x,k,t)=(2,1,4)(x, k, t) = (2, 1, 4). Therefore (a,b,c)=(28,15,27)(a, b, c) = (28, 15, 27), (a,b,c)=(267,280,343)(a, b, c) = (267, 280, 343) and (a,b,c)=(62,120,128)(a, b, c) = (62, 120, 128).

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