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Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Find the answer

In triangle ABC,AB=6,BC=7A B C, A B=6, B C=7 and CA=8C A=8. Let D,E,FD, E, F be the midpoints of sides BCB C, AC,ABA C, A B, respectively. Also let OA,OB,OCO_{A}, O_{B}, O_{C} be the circumcenters of triangles AFD,BDEA F D, B D E, and CEFC E F, respectively. Find the area of triangle OAOBOCO_{A} O_{B} O_{C}.

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

Solution

Let AB=z,BC=x,CA=yA B=z, B C=x, C A=y. Let X,Y,Z,O,NX, Y, Z, O, N be the circumcenter of AEF,BFD,CDE,ABC,DEFA E F, B F D, C D E, A B C, D E F respectively. Note that NN is the nine-point center of ABCA B C, and X,Y,ZX, Y, Z are the midpoints of OA,OB,OCO A, O B, O C respectively, and thus XYZX Y Z is the image of homothety of ABCA B C with center OO and ratio 12\frac{1}{2}, so this triangle has side lengths x2,y2,z2\frac{x}{2}, \frac{y}{2}, \frac{z}{2}. Since NXN X perpendicularly bisects EFE F, which is parallel to BCB C and thus YZY Z, we see that NN is the orthocenter of XYZX Y Z. Moreover, O1O_{1} lies on YNY N and O1XO_{1} X is perpendicular to XYX Y. To compute the area of O1O2O3O_{1} O_{2} O_{3}, it suffices to compute [NO1O2]+[NO2O3]+[NO3O1]\left[N O_{1} O_{2}\right]+\left[\mathrm{NO}_{2} O_{3}\right]+\left[N O_{3} O_{1}\right]. Note that O1XO_{1} X is parallel to NO2N O_{2}, and O2YO_{2} Y is parallel to XNX N, so [NO1O2]=[NXO2]=[NXY]\left[N O_{1} O_{2}\right]=\left[N X O_{2}\right]=[N X Y]. Similarly the other two triangles have equal area as [NYZ][N Y Z] and [NZX][N Z X] respectively, so the desired area is simply the area of [XYZ][X Y Z], which is 14(x+y+z)(x+yz)(xy+z)(x+y+z)4=2195716=211516\frac{1}{4} \frac{\sqrt{(x+y+z)(x+y-z)(x-y+z)(-x+y+z)}}{4}=\frac{\sqrt{21 \cdot 9 \cdot 5 \cdot 7}}{16}=\frac{21 \sqrt{15}}{16}.

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