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Geometry Difficulty 3.6 AMC 10/12 Find the answer

Triangle ABCABC has AB=27AB=27, AC=26AC=26, and BC=25BC=25. Let II be the intersection of the internal angle bisectors of ABC\triangle ABC. What is BIBI?

Pick one

Solution

Inscribe circle CC of radius rr inside triangle ABCABC so that it meets ABAB at QQ, BCBC at RR, and ACAC at SS. Note that angle bisectors of triangle ABCABC are concurrent at the center OO(also II) of circle CC. Let x=QBx=QB, y=RCy=RC and z=ASz=AS. Note that BR=xBR=x, SC=ySC=y and AQ=zAQ=z. Hence x+z=27x+z=27, x+y=25x+y=25, and z+y=26z+y=26. Subtracting the last 2 equations we have xz=1x-z=-1 and adding this to the first equation we have x=13x=13.
By Heron's formula for the area of a triangle we have that the area of triangle ABCABC is 39(14)(13)(12)\sqrt{39(14)(13)(12)}. On the other hand the area is given by (1/2)25r+(1/2)26r+(1/2)27r(1/2)25r+(1/2)26r+(1/2)27r. Then 39r=39(14)(13)(12)39r=\sqrt{39(14)(13)(12)} so that r2=56r^2=56.
Since the radius of circle OO is perpendicular to BCBC at RR, we have by the pythagorean theorem BO2=BI2=r2+x2=56+169=225BO^2=BI^2=r^2+x^2=56+169=225 so that BI=(A) 15BI=\boxed{\textbf{(A) } 15}.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.