Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 164 of 400 #764 of 2000

Problem 764

AIME late
Geometry Difficulty 5.4 Find the answer

6. In the triangular pyramid PABCP-ABC, the angles formed by the three lateral faces and the base are equal, the areas of the three lateral faces are 33, 44, and 55, and the area of the base is 66. Then, the surface area of the circumscribed sphere of the triangular pyramid PABCP-ABC is \qquad

Official solution

6. 79π3\frac{79 \pi}{3}.

Let the angle between the side faces and the base be θ\theta. By the projection theorem of area,
cosθ=63+4+5=12θ=60. \cos \theta=\frac{6}{3+4+5}=\frac{1}{2} \Rightarrow \theta=60^{\circ} .

It is easy to see that the projection of PP on the base is exactly the incenter of ABC\triangle A B C, denoted as II.

Since the areas of the three side faces are 33, 44, and 55, the ratio of the sides of ABC\triangle A B C is 3:4:53: 4: 5.

Noting that the area of ABC\triangle A B C is 6, we know that the inradius of ABC\triangle A B C is 1.
Thus, the height of the tetrahedron PABCP-A B C is 3\sqrt{3}.
Let the circumcenter of the tetrahedron PABCP-A B C be OO and the radius be RR. Since ABC\triangle A B C is a right triangle with side lengths 33, 44, and 55, the distance between the incenter II and the circumcenter OO' of ABC\triangle A B C is 52\frac{\sqrt{5}}{2}. Since the sphere center is outside the tetrahedron PABCP-A B C, constructing a right triangle easily gives
(3+R2254)2+(52)2=R2R2=7912. \begin{array}{l} \left(\sqrt{3}+\sqrt{R^{2}-\frac{25}{4}}\right)^{2}+\left(\frac{\sqrt{5}}{2}\right)^{2}=R^{2} \\ \Rightarrow R^{2}=\frac{79}{12} . \end{array}

Therefore, the surface area of the circumscribed sphere S=4πR2=79π3S=4 \pi R^{2}=\frac{79 \pi}{3}.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.