Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Find the answer

A tetrahedron has all its faces triangles with sides 13,14,1513,14,15. What is its volume?

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

Solution

Let ABCA B C be a triangle with AB=13,BC=14,CA=15A B=13, B C=14, C A=15. Let AD,BEA D, B E be altitudes. Then BD=5,CD=9B D=5, C D=9. (If you don't already know this, it can be deduced from the Pythagorean Theorem: CD2BD2=(CD2+AD2)(BD2+AD2)=AC2AB2=56C D^{2}-B D^{2}=\left(C D^{2}+A D^{2}\right)-\left(B D^{2}+A D^{2}\right)=A C^{2}-A B^{2}=56, while CD+BD=BC=14C D+B D=B C=14, giving CDBD=56/14=4C D-B D=56 / 14=4, and now solve the linear system.) Also, AD=AB2BD2=12A D=\sqrt{A B^{2}-B D^{2}}=12. Similar reasoning gives AE=33/5A E=33 / 5, EC=42/5E C=42 / 5. Now let FF be the point on BCB C such that CF=BD=5C F=B D=5, and let GG be on ACA C such that CG=AE=33/5C G=A E=33 / 5. Imagine placing face ABCA B C flat on the table, and letting XX be a point in space with CX=13,BX=14C X=13, B X=14. By mentally rotating triangle BCXB C X about line BCB C, we can see that XX lies on the plane perpendicular to BCB C through FF. In particular, this holds if XX is the fourth vertex of our tetrahedron ABCXA B C X. Similarly, XX lies on the plane perpendicular to ACA C through GG. Let the mutual intersection of these two planes and plane ABCA B C be HH. Then XHX H is the altitude of the tetrahedron. To find XHX H, extend FHF H to meet ACA C at II. Then CFICDA\triangle C F I \sim \triangle C D A, a 3-4-5 triangle, so FI=CF4/3=20/3F I=C F \cdot 4 / 3=20 / 3, and CI=CF5/3=25/3C I=C F \cdot 5 / 3=25 / 3. Then IG=CICG=26/15I G=C I-C G=26 / 15, and HI=IG5/4=13/6H I=I G \cdot 5 / 4=13 / 6. This leads to HF=FIHI=9/2H F=F I-H I=9 / 2, and finally XH=XF2HF2=AD2HF2=355/2X H=\sqrt{X F^{2}-H F^{2}}=\sqrt{A D^{2}-H F^{2}}=3 \sqrt{55} / 2. Now XABCX A B C is a tetrahedron whose base ABC\triangle A B C has area ADBC/2=1214/2=84A D \cdot B C / 2=12 \cdot 14 / 2=84, and whose height XHX H is 355/23 \sqrt{55} / 2, so its volume is (84)(355/2)/3=4255(84)(3 \sqrt{55} / 2) / 3=42 \sqrt{55}.

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Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.