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Geometry Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

ABCDABCD is a rectangle. EE is a point on ABAB between AA and BB, and FF is a point on ADAD between AA and DD. The area of the triangle EBCEBC is 1616, the area of the triangle EAFEAF is 1212 and the area of the triangle FDCFDC is 3030. Find the area of the triangle EFCEFC.

Solution

First Solution: Let EB=x|EB| = x and AE=y|AE| = y, then DC=x+y|DC| = x + y,
BC=32x,AF=24y,and so FD=32x24y. |BC| = \frac{32}{x}, \quad |AF| = \frac{24}{y}, \quad \text{and so } |FD| = \frac{32}{x} - \frac{24}{y}.
Figure 1

30=12(32x24y)(x+y)=4+16yx12xy. 30 = \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{32}{x} - \frac{24}{y} \right) (x + y) = 4 + 16 \frac{y}{x} - 12 \frac{x}{y}.
Multiply across by yx\frac{y}{x} and rearrange to get the equation
16(yx)226(yx)12=0 16 \left(\frac{y}{x}\right)^2 - 26 \left(\frac{y}{x}\right) - 12 = 0
which has only one positive solution yx=2\frac{y}{x} = 2. If TT denotes the area of triangle EFCEFC, the area of ABCDABCD is
16+12+30+T=32x(x+y)=32(1+yx)=96 16 + 12 + 30 + T = \frac{32}{x}(x+y) = 32\left(1+\frac{y}{x}\right) = 96
and so T=9658=38T = 96 - 58 = 38.

Second Solution: (after Adam Kielthy) Let
a=AE,b=EB,c=AF,d=FD a = |AE|, \quad b = |EB|, \quad c = |AF|, \quad d = |FD|
and denote the triangle areas as follows
Y=EBC=b(c+d)2Z=CDF=d(a+b)2W=AEF=ac2X=ECF \begin{aligned} Y &= |EBC| = \frac{b(c+d)}{2} & Z &= |CDF| = \frac{d(a+b)}{2} \\ W &= |AEF| = \frac{ac}{2} & X &= |ECF| \end{aligned}
from which we obtain ac=2Wac = 2W, ad=2Zbdad = 2Z - bd, bc=2Ybdbc = 2Y - bd.

The area of the rectangle is equal to
X+Y+Z+W=(a+b)(c+d)=ac+ad+bc+bd=2(Y+Z+W)bd, X + Y + Z + W = (a+b)(c+d) = ac + ad + bc + bd = 2(Y + Z + W) - bd,
which implies bd=Y+Z+WXbd = Y + Z + W - X. On the other hand, from YZ=bd(a+b)(c+d)/4YZ = bd(a+b)(c+d)/4, we obtain bd=4YZ/(Y+Z+W+X)bd = 4YZ/(Y + Z + W + X). Therefore, Y+Z+WX=4YZ/(Y+Z+W+X)Y + Z + W - X = 4YZ/(Y + Z + W + X), i.e. (Y+Z+W)2X2=4YZ(Y + Z + W)^2 - X^2 = 4YZ. This implies X2=(Y+Z+W)24YZ=(16+30+12)241630=1444X^2 = (Y + Z + W)^2 - 4YZ = (16+30+12)^2 - 4 \cdot 16 \cdot 30 = 1444, hence X=38X = 38.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.