Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.9 AIME Find the answer

Let ABCDABCD be a quadrilateral with side lengths AB=2,BC=3,CD=5AB=2, BC=3, CD=5, and DA=4DA=4. What is the maximum possible radius of a circle inscribed in quadrilateral ABCDABCD?

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

Solution

Let the tangent lengths be a,b,c,da, b, c, d so that a+b=2,b+c=3,c+d=5,d+a=4a+b=2, b+c=3, c+d=5, d+a=4. Then b=2ab=2-a and c=1+ac=1+a and d=4ad=4-a. The radius of the inscribed circle of quadrilateral ABCDABCD is given by abc+abd+acd+bcda+b+c+d=7a2+16a+87\sqrt{\frac{abc+abd+acd+bcd}{a+b+c+d}}=\sqrt{\frac{-7a^{2}+16a+8}{7}}. This is clearly maximized when a=87a=\frac{8}{7} which leads to a radius of 12049=2307\sqrt{\frac{120}{49}}=\frac{2\sqrt{30}}{7}.

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