If a,b, and d are the lengths of a side, a shortest diagonal and a longest diagonal, respectively, of a regular nonagon (see adjoining figure), then
Pick one
Solution
By the law of cosines we can get the following expressions for d2 and b2: d2=2b2(1−cos(100∘))b2=2a2(1−cos(140∘)) We can substitute what we got for b2 into the expression for d2: d2=4a2(1−cos(140∘))(1−cos(100∘))=4a2(1−(cos(100∘)+cos(140∘))+cos(100∘)cos(140∘)) Now apply sum-to-product and product-to-sum identities: d2=4a2(1−(2cos(120∘)cos(120∘))+21(cos(240∘)+cos(40∘))) Simplifying further gives us: d2=4a2(1+cos(20∘)−41+21cos(40∘)) After using the fact that cos(40∘)=2cos2(20∘)−1, it's not hard to see that the expression in the parentheses is equal to (cos(20∘)+21)2. So we can square-root both sides to find the expression for d: d=2a(cos(20∘)+21) Now let's look at the expression for b2. We can apply the reverse of the double angle identity to show that 1−cos(140∘) equals 2sin2(70∘)). So if we square root the entire expression we get that b=2asin(70∘)=2acos(20∘) We now have everything in terms of a. Luckily when we consider choice A we can verify without much work that this must be the answer. Solution by harita19
NOTE: a much easier solution exists by drawing some lines and recognizing that the nonagon is cyclic, but for those of use who use algebra in every geometry problem, this is the best solution.
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.