Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 61 of 400 #661 of 2000

Problem 661

AIME late
Algebra Difficulty 5.2 Find the answer

4. If non-zero vectors α,β\boldsymbol{\alpha}, \boldsymbol{\beta} satisfy α+β=αβ|\boldsymbol{\alpha}+\boldsymbol{\beta}|=|\boldsymbol{\alpha}-\boldsymbol{\beta}|, then the angle between α\boldsymbol{\alpha} and β\boldsymbol{\beta} is

Official solution

4. 9090^{\circ} Hint: According to the parallelogram rule for the sum and difference of vectors, α+β,αβ|\boldsymbol{\alpha}+\boldsymbol{\beta}|,|\boldsymbol{\alpha}-\boldsymbol{\beta}| are exactly the lengths of the two diagonals of the parallelogram with αβ\boldsymbol{\alpha} 、 \boldsymbol{\beta} as adjacent sides. Since α+β=αβ|\boldsymbol{\alpha}+\boldsymbol{\beta}|=|\boldsymbol{\alpha}-\boldsymbol{\beta}|, the parallelogram is a rectangle. Therefore, the angle between α\boldsymbol{\alpha} and β\boldsymbol{\beta} is 9090^{\circ}.

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