Let be an equilateral triangle with side length 1. Points lie inside triangle such that are collinear, are collinear, are collinear, and triangle is equilateral. Suppose that there exists a unique equilateral triangle with on side on side , and on side such that lies on side lies on side , and lies on side . Compute .
Solution
First, note that point can be constructed from intersection of and side . Thus, if there is a unique equilateral triangle, then we must have that is tangent to . Furthermore, is tangent to , so by equal tangents, we have . We now compute the answer. Let . Then, by power of point, Thus, by law of cosine on , we have that
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