Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Find the answer Italy

Problem:

Three friends enter Giorgio's pizzeria and each sits at one side of a rectangular table; the first sits at a side of length 70 cm70~\mathrm{cm}, the second and the third sit facing each other, on sides of length ll. The pizzas have a diameter of 30 cm30~\mathrm{cm}; Giorgio serves the pizza of the first customer so that it is tangent to his side of the table at the midpoint, and the pizzas of the other two so that they are tangent to their respective sides of the table and to the first pizza. What is the minimum value of ll (in centimeters) for which the three pizzas can fit entirely on the table?

Pick one

Solution

Solution:

The answer is (D). Consider a rectangular table in which the length ll is the minimum such that the three pizzas are entirely contained on its surface, that is, such that the second and third pizzas are tangent to the side at which none of the three friends is sitting. Let us call O1,O2O_{1}, O_{2} the centers of the first two pizzas, and let PP be the point of intersection between the line through O1O_{1} parallel to the side to which the second pizza is tangent (which has length ll) and the line through O2O_{2} parallel to the side to which the first pizza is tangent (which has length 70 cm70~\mathrm{cm}). Then l=15+O1P+15l=15+O_{1}P+15; on the other hand O1O2O_{1}O_{2} has length 60 cm60~\mathrm{cm}, while the length of O2PO_{2}P can be computed, in centimeters, as 70215=20\frac{70}{2}-15=20; the angle O1P^O2O_{1}\widehat{P}O_{2} is right by definition, and thus by the Pythagorean Theorem O1P=O1O22O2P2O_{1}P=\sqrt{O_{1}O_{2}^{2}-O_{2}P^{2}}, that is, the required length turns out to be, in centimeters, 30+10530+10\sqrt{5}.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.