Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Find the answer

Example 1. An isosceles trapezoid with bases a,ba, b and height hh
(1) Find a point PP on the axis of symmetry such that the angles subtended by the non-parallel sides at PP are right angles.
(2) Find the distances from point PP to the two bases.

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

Solution

Let the isosceles trapezoid ABCDABCD have AB=a,CD=bAB=a, CD=b, and the axis of symmetry intersects the two bases at E,F,EF=hE, F, EF=h. Construct a semicircle (inward) with BCBC as the diameter, intersecting EFEF at P1,P2P_{1}, P_{2} (if tangent, the two points coincide; if separated, there is no solution), which is the desired result. Let P1E=x1,P1F=x2P_{1} E=x_{1}, P_{1} F=x_{2}, then P1ECBFP1\triangle P_{1} E C \sim \triangle B F P_{1}, so x1x2=ab4x_{1} x_{2}=\frac{a b}{4}. Also, x1+x2=hx_{1}+x_{2}=h, then x1,x2x_{1}, x_{2} are the two roots of the equation x2hx+14ab=0x^{2}-h x+\frac{1}{4} a b=0.

When h2abh^{2} \geq a b, there are solutions x1,2=h2±12h2abx_{1,2}=\frac{h}{2} \pm \frac{1}{2} \sqrt{h^{2}-a b}. Similarly consider P20P_{20}.

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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.