Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / USA Team Selection Test /24 of 33

USA Team Selection Test

Geometry Difficulty 8.2 Shortlist Find the answer

Let ABP,BCQ,CAR ABP, BCQ, CAR be three non-overlapping triangles erected outside of acute triangle ABC ABC. Let M M be the midpoint of segment AP AP. Given that PAB CQB 45\text{PAB CQB 45}, ABP QBC 75\text{ABP QBC 75}, RAC 105\text{RAC 105}, and RQ 2 6CM 2\text{RQ 2 6CM 2}, compute AC2/AR2 AC^2/AR^2.

Zuming Feng.

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

Solution

Let ABP,BCQ,CAR ABP, BCQ, CAR be three non-overlapping triangles erected outside of acute triangle ABC ABC . Let M M be the midpoint of segment AP AP . Given that ∠PAB=∠CQB=45∘ \angle PAB = \angle CQB = 45^\circ , ∠ABP=∠QBC=75∘ \angle ABP = \angle QBC = 75^\circ , ∠RAC=105∘ \angle RAC = 105^\circ , and RQ2=6CM2 RQ^2 = 6CM^2 , we aim to compute AC2AR2 \frac{AC^2}{AR^2} .

Construct parallelogram CADP CADP .

Claim: △AQR∼△ADC \triangle AQR \sim \triangle ADC .

Proof: Observe that △BPA∼△BCQ \triangle BPA \sim \triangle BCQ , hence △BAQ∼△BPC \triangle BAQ \sim \triangle BPC . Consequently,
AQAD=AQCP=BPBA=32=QRDC. \frac{AQ}{AD} = \frac{AQ}{CP} = \frac{BP}{BA} = \sqrt{\frac{3}{2}} = \frac{QR}{DC}.
Since ∠RAC=105∘ \angle RAC = 105^\circ and ∠QAD=∠CPA+∠QAP=180∘−∠(CP,AQ)=180∘−∠ABP=105∘ \angle QAD = \angle CPA + \angle QAP = 180^\circ - \angle (CP, AQ) = 180^\circ - \angle ABP = 105^\circ , we can use SSA similarity (since 105∘>90∘ 105^\circ > 90^\circ ) to conclude that △AQR∼△ADC \triangle AQR \sim \triangle ADC .

Thus, it follows that
AC2AR2=23. \frac{AC^2}{AR^2} = \frac{2}{3}.

The answer is: 23\boxed{\frac{2}{3}}.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.