Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /204 of 520

Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Find the answer

Let ABCABC be an equilateral triangle of side length 1.1. For a real number 0<x<0.5,0<x<0.5, let A1A_1 and A2A_2 be the points on side BCBC such that A1B=A2C=x,A_1B=A_2C=x, and let TA=AA1A2.T_A=\triangle AA_1A_2. Construct triangles TB=BB1B2T_B=\triangle BB_1B_2 and TC=CC1C2T_C=\triangle CC_1C_2 similarly.

There exist positive rational numbers b,cb,c such that the region of points inside all three triangles TA,TB,TCT_A,T_B,T_C is a hexagon with area 8x2bx+c(2x)(x+1)34.\dfrac{8x^2-bx+c}{(2-x)(x+1)}\cdot \dfrac{\sqrt 3}{4}. Find (b,c).(b,c).

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

1. Identify the problem and given information:
- We have an equilateral triangle ABCABC with side length 1.
- Points A1A_1 and A2A_2 are on side BCBC such that A1B=A2C=xA_1B = A_2C = x where 0<x<0.50 < x < 0.5.
- Triangles TA=AA1A2T_A = \triangle AA_1A_2, TB=BB1B2T_B = \triangle BB_1B_2, and TC=CC1C2T_C = \triangle CC_1C_2 are constructed similarly.
- The region inside all three triangles forms a hexagon with area given by:
8x2bx+c(2x)(x+1)34 \frac{8x^2 - bx + c}{(2-x)(x+1)} \cdot \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}
- We need to find the values of bb and cc.

2. **Determine the area when x=0x = 0:**
- When x=0x = 0, the points A1A_1 and A2A_2 coincide with BB and CC respectively, making TAT_A degenerate and the hexagon coincides with the original triangle ABCABC.
- The area of ABCABC is:
Area=34 \text{Area} = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}
- Substituting x=0x = 0 into the given area formula:
8(0)2b(0)+c(20)(0+1)34=c234 \frac{8(0)^2 - b(0) + c}{(2-0)(0+1)} \cdot \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} = \frac{c}{2} \cdot \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}
- Equating this to the area of ABCABC:
c234=34 \frac{c}{2} \cdot \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}
c2=1    c=2 \frac{c}{2} = 1 \implies c = 2

3. **Determine the area when x=0.5x = 0.5:**
- When x=0.5x = 0.5, the points A1A_1 and A2A_2 are at the midpoints of BCBC, making TAT_A a smaller equilateral triangle with side length 0.50.5.
- The area of each smaller triangle is:
Area of TA=34(12)2=316 \text{Area of } T_A = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} \left(\frac{1}{2}\right)^2 = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{16}
- The hexagon formed by the intersection of TAT_A, TBT_B, and TCT_C has zero area because the triangles overlap completely.
- Substituting x=0.5x = 0.5 into the given area formula:
8(0.5)2b(0.5)+2(20.5)(0.5+1)34=0 \frac{8(0.5)^2 - b(0.5) + 2}{(2-0.5)(0.5+1)} \cdot \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} = 0
2b2+21.51.534=0 \frac{2 - \frac{b}{2} + 2}{1.5 \cdot 1.5} \cdot \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} = 0
4b22.2534=0 \frac{4 - \frac{b}{2}}{2.25} \cdot \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} = 0
4b2=0    b=8 4 - \frac{b}{2} = 0 \implies b = 8

4. Conclusion:
- The values of bb and cc are 88 and 22 respectively.

The final answer is (8,2) \boxed{ (8, 2) }

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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