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Geometry Difficulty 4.5 AIME Find the answer

Let ABCDA B C D be a quadrilateral with A=(3,4),B=(9,40),C=(5,12),D=(7,24)A=(3,4), B=(9,-40), C=(-5,-12), D=(-7,24). Let PP be a point in the plane (not necessarily inside the quadrilateral). Find the minimum possible value of AP+BP+CP+DPA P+B P+C P+D P.

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

Solution

By the triangle inequality, AP+CPACA P+C P \geq A C and BP+DPBDB P+D P \geq B D. So PP should be on ACA C and BDB D; i.e. it should be the intersection of the two diagonals. Then AP+BP+CP+DP=AC+BDA P+B P+C P+D P=A C+B D, which is easily computed to be 1617+8516 \sqrt{17}+8 \sqrt{5} by the Pythagorean theorem. Note that we require the intersection of the diagonals to actually exist for this proof to work, but ABCDA B C D is convex and this is not an issue.

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