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Geometry Difficulty 7.2 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Estonia

Points AA, BB and CC are chosen in a rectangle of shape 7×107 \times 10 in such a way that the distances from AA to some three sides of the rectangle are 22, 33 and 44, the distances from BB to some three sides of the rectangle are 33, 44 and 55, and the distances from CC to some three sides of the rectangle are 44, 55 and 66. Find the largest possible area the triangle ABCABC can have.

Solution

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Answer: 72\frac{7}{2}.

Solution: Introduce a Cartesian coordinate system with origin OO at one vertex of the rectangle. Let the other vertices of the rectangle be P=(10,0)P = (10,0), Q=(10,7)Q = (10,7) and R=(0,7)R = (0,7). Given the distances from a point to three sides of the rectangle, two of these sides must be opposite sides and the corresponding distances sum up to the length of the perpendicular side of the rectangle. Thus AA must lie at distances 33 and 44 from the horizontal sides and at distances 22 and 88 from the vertical sides. W.l.o.g., let A=(2,3)A = (2,3). Similarly, BB must lie at distances 33 and 44 from the horizontal sides and at distances 55 and 55 from the vertical sides. Thus B=B1=(5,3)B = B_1 = (5,3) or B=B2=(5,4)B = B_2 = (5,4) (Fig. 16). Finally, CC must lie at distances 44 and 66 from the vertical sides and at distances 22 and 55 from the horizontal sides. Thus C=C1=(4,2)C = C_1 = (4,2) or C=C2=(4,5)C = C_2 = (4,5) or C=C3=(6,2)C = C_3 = (6,2) or C=C4=(6,5)C = C_4 = (6,5) (Fig. 17).

Altogether, the triangle ABCABC can be located in 88 ways. We study which one yields the largest area. If B=B1=(5,3)B = B_1 = (5,3), take the side ABAB with length 33 as base. The corresponding altitude has length 11 if C=C1=(4,2)C = C_1 = (4,2) or C=C3=(6,2)C = C_3 = (6,2) and 22 if C=C2=(4,5)C = C_2 = (4,5) or C=C4=(6,5)C = C_4 = (6,5) (Fig. 18). Thus the largest area in the observed cases is 33. Consider now the case B=B2=(5,4)B = B_2 = (5,4). Reflecting the points C1C_1 and C3C_3 from the midpoint of the side ABAB, we obtain points C1=(3,5)C'_1 = (3,5) and C3=(1,5)C'_3 = (1,5) which yield the same areas (Fig. 19). Points C2C_2, C4C_4, C1C'_1 and C3C'_3 lie on the line y=5y = 5, whereby the one with the least x-coordinate, the point C3C'_3, is the farthest from the line ABAB. Hence the largest area arises in the case C=C3=(6,2)C = C_3 = (6,2). The size of the rectangle surrounded by lines y=2y = 2, y=4y = 4, x=2x = 2 and x=6x = 6 is 2×42 \times 4. Removing three right triangles to extract the triangle ABCABC (Fig. 20) enables to express the area of the triangle ABCABC as 24121312121214=722 \cdot 4 - \frac{1}{2} \cdot 1 \cdot 3 - \frac{1}{2} \cdot 1 \cdot 2 - \frac{1}{2} \cdot 1 \cdot 4 = \frac{7}{2}. As 72>3\frac{7}{2} > 3, the largest possible area of the triangle ABCABC is 72\frac{7}{2}.

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