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Geometry Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it Croatia

In a triangle ABCABC we have BC+AC=2AB|BC| + |AC| = 2|AB| and BACCBA=90\angle BAC - \angle CBA = 90^\circ.

Determine the cosine of the angle ACB\angle ACB.

Solution

Let DD be the point on the side BC\overline{BC} such that DAC=90\angle DAC = 90^\circ. Let us denote φ=CDA\varphi = \angle CDA and x=CDx = |CD|. Then cosACB=sinφ\cos \angle ACB = \sin \varphi.

Figure 1

Then we have AC=xsinφ|AC| = x \sin \varphi and BD=AD=xcosφ|BD| = |AD| = x \cos \varphi. We also have BAD=φ2\angle BAD = \frac{\varphi}{2} and AB=2xcosφcosφ2|AB| = 2x \cos \varphi \cos \frac{\varphi}{2}.

Since BC+AC=2AB|BC| + |AC| = 2|AB|, we get
1+cosφ+sinφ=4cosφcosφ2. 1 + \cos \varphi + \sin \varphi = 4 \cos \varphi \cos \frac{\varphi}{2}.
By squaring both sides of the equation we get
1+cos2φ+sin2φ+2cosφ+2sinφ+2sinφcosφ=16cos2φcos2φ2, 1 + \cos^2 \varphi + \sin^2 \varphi + 2 \cos \varphi + 2 \sin \varphi + 2 \sin \varphi \cos \varphi = 16 \cos^2 \varphi \cos^2 \frac{\varphi}{2},
and further on
2(1+cosφ)(1+sinφ)=8cos2φ(1+cosφ),1+sinφ=4(1sin2φ),(4sinφ3)(sinφ+1)=0,sinφ=34, \begin{aligned} 2(1 + \cos \varphi)(1 + \sin \varphi) &= 8 \cos^2 \varphi(1 + \cos \varphi), \\ 1 + \sin \varphi &= 4(1 - \sin^2 \varphi), \\ (4 \sin \varphi - 3)(\sin \varphi + 1) &= 0, \\ \sin \varphi &= \frac{3}{4}, \end{aligned}
where we used cosφ1\cos \varphi \neq -1 and sinφ1\sin \varphi \neq -1, which is valid because the angle φ\varphi is acute.

Hence, cosACB=34\cos \angle ACB = \frac{3}{4}.

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