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HMMT February

Geometry Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Find the answer

Point PP is inside a square ABCDA B C D such that ∠APB=135∘,PC=12\angle A P B=135^{\circ}, P C=12, and PD=15P D=15. Compute the area of this square.

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

Solution

Let x=APx=A P and y=BPy=B P. Rotate △BAP\triangle B A P by 90∘90^{\circ} around BB to get △BCQ\triangle B C Q. Then, △BPQ\triangle B P Q is rightisosceles, and from ∠BQC=135∘\angle B Q C=135^{\circ}, we get ∠PQC=90∘\angle P Q C=90^{\circ}. Therefore, by Pythagorean's theorem, PC2=x2+2y2P C^{2}=x^{2}+2y^{2}. Similarly, PD2=y2+2x2P D^{2}=y^{2}+2x^{2}. Thus, y2=2PC2−PD23=21y^{2}=\frac{2P C^{2}-P D^{2}}{3}=21, and similarly x2=102⟹xy=3238x^{2}=102 \Longrightarrow xy=3\sqrt{238}. Thus, by the Law of Cosines, the area of the square is AB2=AP2+BP2−2cos⁡(135∘)(AP)(BP)=x2+y2+2xy=123+6119\begin{aligned} A B^{2} & =A P^{2}+B P^{2}-2 \cos \left(135^{\circ}\right)(A P)(B P) \\ & =x^{2}+y^{2}+\sqrt{2}xy \\ & =123+6\sqrt{119} \end{aligned}

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