Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /221 of 520

Algebra Difficulty 3.1 AMC 10/12 Find the answer

Given plane vectors a=(1,2),b=(2,1),c=(2,t)\overrightarrow{a}=({1,2}),\overrightarrow{b}=({-2,1}),\overrightarrow{c}=({2,t}), if (a+2b)c({\overrightarrow{a}+2\overrightarrow{b}})⊥\overrightarrow{c}, then t=______t=\_\_\_\_\_\_.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

To solve this problem, we start by understanding that two vectors are perpendicular (denoted by ) if their dot product equals zero. Given vectors a=(1,2),b=(2,1),\overrightarrow{a}=({1,2}), \overrightarrow{b}=({-2,1}), and c=(2,t)\overrightarrow{c}=({2,t}), we are told that (a+2b)c({\overrightarrow{a}+2\overrightarrow{b}})⊥\overrightarrow{c}. This means we need to find the value of tt that satisfies this condition.

First, let's calculate a+2b\overrightarrow{a}+2\overrightarrow{b}:
\begin{align*}
\overrightarrow{a}+2\overrightarrow{b} &= ({1,2})+2\cdot({-2,1}) \\
&= ({1,2})+({-4,2}) \\
&= ({1-4,2+2}) \\
&= ({-3,4}).
\end{align*}

Given that (a+2b)c({\overrightarrow{a}+2\overrightarrow{b}})⊥\overrightarrow{c}, we apply the condition for perpendicularity, which is the dot product equals zero:
\begin{align*}
\overrightarrow{a}+2\overrightarrow{b} \cdot \overrightarrow{c} &= 0 \\
({-3,4}) \cdot ({2,t}) &= 0 \\
-3\cdot 2 + 4\cdot t &= 0 \\
-6 + 4t &= 0.
\end{align*}

Solving for tt:
\begin{align*}
4t &= 6 \\
t &= \frac{6}{4} \\
t &= \frac{3}{2}.
\end{align*}

Therefore, the value of tt that satisfies the given condition is 32\boxed{\frac{3}{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.