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Geometry Difficulty 3.3 AMC 10/12 Find the answer

Triangle ABCABC has a right angle at BB. Point DD is the foot of the altitude from BB, AD=3AD=3, and DC=4DC=4. What is the area of ABC\triangle ABC?

Pick one

Solution

It is a well-known fact that in any right triangle ABCABC with the right angle at BB and DD the foot of the altitude from BB onto ACAC we have BD2=ADCDBD^2 = AD\cdot CD. (See below for a proof.) Then BD=34=23BD = \sqrt{ 3\cdot 4 } = 2\sqrt 3, and the area of the triangle ABCABC is ACBD2=73(B)\frac{AC\cdot BD}2 = 7\sqrt3\Rightarrow\boxed{\text{(B)}}.
Proof: Consider the Pythagorean theorem for each of the triangles ABCABC, ABDABD, and CBDCBD. We get:

AB2+BC2=AC2=(AD+DC)2=AD2+DC2+2ADDCAB^2 + BC^2 = AC^2 = (AD+DC)^2 = AD^2 + DC^2 + 2 \cdot AD \cdot DC.
AB2=AD2+BD2AB^2 = AD^2 + BD^2
BC2=BD2+CD2BC^2 = BD^2 + CD^2
Substituting equations 2 and 3 into the left hand side of equation 1, we get BD2=ADDCBD^2 = AD \cdot DC.
Alternatively, note that ABDBCDADBD=BDCD\triangle ABD \sim \triangle BCD \Longrightarrow \frac{AD}{BD} = \frac{BD}{CD}.

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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.