Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 3 / 139 of 260 #139 of 1964

Problem 139

AMC 10/12, early questions
Geometry Difficulty 3.4 Multiple choice

In ABC\triangle ABC, cos(2AB)+sin(A+B)=2\cos(2A-B)+\sin(A+B)=2 and AB=4AB=4. What is BCBC?

Pick one

Official solution

We note that 1-1 \le sinx\sin x \le 11 and 1-1 \le cosx\cos x \le 11.
Therefore, there is no other way to satisfy this equation other than making both cos(2AB)=1\cos(2A-B)=1 and sin(A+B)=1\sin(A+B)=1, since any other way would cause one of these values to become greater than 1, which contradicts our previous statement.
From this we can easily conclude that 2AB=02A-B=0^{\circ} and A+B=90A+B=90^{\circ} and solving this system gives us A=30A=30^{\circ} and B=60B=60^{\circ}. It is clear that ABC\triangle ABC is a 30,60,9030^{\circ},60^{\circ},90^{\circ} triangle with BC=2BC=2 \Longrightarrow (C)(C).

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