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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it China

Suppose that the sides aa, bb, cc of ABC\triangle ABC, corresponding to the angles AA, BB, CC respectively, constitute a geometric sequence. Then the range of
sinAcotC+cosAsinBcotC+cosB \frac{\sin A \cot C + \cos A}{\sin B \cot C + \cos B}
is ( ).

Solution

Suppose that the common ratio of aa, bb, cc is qq. Then b=aqb = aq, c=aq2c = aq^2. We have
sinAcotC+cosAsinBcotC+cosB=sinAcosC+cosAsinCsinBcosC+cosBsinC=sin(A+C)sin(B+C)=sin(πB)sin(πA)=sinBsinA=ba=q. \begin{aligned} \frac{\sin A \cot C + \cos A}{\sin B \cot C + \cos B} &= \frac{\sin A \cos C + \cos A \sin C}{\sin B \cos C + \cos B \sin C} \\ &= \frac{\sin(A+C)}{\sin(B+C)} = \frac{\sin(\pi-B)}{\sin(\pi-A)} \\ &= \frac{\sin B}{\sin A} = \frac{b}{a} = q. \end{aligned}
So we only need to determine the range of qq. As aa, bb, cc are the sides of a triangle, they satisfy a+b>ca+b>c and b+c>ab+c>a. That is to say,
{a+aq>aq2,aq+aq2>a. \begin{cases} a + aq > aq^2, \\ aq + aq^2 > a. \end{cases}
It follows that
{q2q1<0,q2+q1>0. \begin{cases} q^2 - q - 1 < 0, \\ q^2 + q - 1 > 0. \end{cases}
Their solutions are
{512<q<5+12,q>512 or q<5+12. \begin{cases} \frac{\sqrt{5}-1}{2} < q < \frac{\sqrt{5}+1}{2}, \\ q > \frac{\sqrt{5}-1}{2} \text{ or } q < -\frac{\sqrt{5}+1}{2}. \end{cases}
It is only possible that
512<q<5+12 \frac{\sqrt{5}-1}{2} < q < \frac{\sqrt{5}+1}{2}

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