Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2022

Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Bulgaria

The lengths of the sides and the diagonal ACAC of inscribed quadrilateral ABCDABCD are positive integers. If cosABC=14\cos \angle ABC = \frac{1}{4}, 2CD=AD+AC2CD = AD + AC and 2AB=CA+CB+CD2AB = CA + CB + CD find the smallest possible value of the perimeter of ABCDABCD.

Solution

Let α=ABC\alpha = \angle ABC, AB=aAB = a, BC=bBC = b, CD=cCD = c, DA=dDA = d and AC=eAC = e. Then ADC=180α\angle ADC = 180^\circ - \alpha, 2c=d+e2c = d + e, 2a=b+e+c2a = b + e + c and it follows from the cosine theorem for ADC\triangle ADC that
d2+c2+dc2=e2=(2cd)2    2c=3d. d^2 + c^2 + \frac{dc}{2} = e^2 = (2c - d)^2 \iff 2c = 3d.
Since 2c=d+e2c = d + e we obtain e=2de = 2d and 2a=b+e+c2a = b + e + c implies 2a=b+7e42a = b + \frac{7e}{4}. The cosine theorem for ABC\triangle ABC gives
a2+b2ab2=e2=(47(2ab))2    33b2+79ab215a2=0. a^2 + b^2 - \frac{ab}{2} = e^2 = \left(\frac{4}{7}(2a - b)\right)^2 \iff 33b^2 + \frac{79ab}{2} - 15a^2 = 0.
Since the roots of the equation 33x2+79x215=033x^2 + \frac{79x}{2} - 15 = 0 are x1=1033x_1 = \frac{10}{33} and x2<0x_2 < 0 we have ba=1033    b=10a33\frac{b}{a} = \frac{10}{33} \iff b = \frac{10a}{33}.
Now 2a=b+7e42a = b + \frac{7e}{4} implies a=33e32=33d16a = \frac{33e}{32} = \frac{33d}{16} and b=5d8b = \frac{5d}{8}. Finally a=33d16a = \frac{33d}{16}, b=5d8b = \frac{5d}{8}, c=3d2c = \frac{3d}{2}, e=2de = 2d. The least value of dd for which aa is an integer is d=16d = 16. Therefore AB=33AB = 33, BC=10BC = 10, CD=24CD = 24, DA=16DA = 16, AC=32AC = 32 and the least value of the perimeter equals 8383.

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