Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.9 AIME Find the answer

A point in three-space has distances 2,6,7,8,92,6,7,8,9 from five of the vertices of a regular octahedron. What is its distance from the sixth vertex?

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

Solution

By a simple variant of the British Flag Theorem, if ABCDA B C D is a square and PP any point in space, AP2+CP2=BP2+DP2A P^{2}+C P^{2}=B P^{2}+D P^{2}. Four of the five given vertices must form a square ABCDA B C D, and by experimentation we find their distances to the given point PP must be AP=2,BP=6,CP=9,DP=7A P=2, B P=6, C P=9, D P=7. Then A,CA, C, and the other two vertices E,FE, F also form a square AECFA E C F, so 85=AP2+CP2=EP2+FP2=82+FP2FP=2185=A P^{2}+C P^{2}=E P^{2}+F P^{2}=8^{2}+F P^{2} \Rightarrow F P=\sqrt{21}.

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