Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 3 / 167 of 260 #167 of 2000

Problem 167

AMC 10/12, early questions
Geometry Difficulty 3.6 Find the answer

In triangle ABCABC, let a,b,ca, b, c be the lengths of the sides opposite to angles A,B,CA, B, C respectively, and it is given that 2sinAsinC(1tanAtanC1)=1.2\sin A\sin C\left( \frac{1}{\tan A\tan C}-1\right)=-1.
(Ⅰ) Determine the measure of angle BB;
(Ⅱ) If a+c=332a+c= \frac{3\sqrt{3}}{2} and b=3,b=\sqrt{3}, find the area of triangle ABCABC.

Official solution

(Ⅰ) Since 2sinAsinC(1tanAtanC1)=1,2\sin A\sin C\left( \frac{1}{\tan A\tan C}-1\right)=-1, we have that
2cosAcosC(tanAtanC1)=12\cos A\cos C(\tan A\tan C-1)=1
Hence,
2cosAcosC(sinAsinCcosAcosC1)=1,2\cos A\cos C\left( \frac{\sin A\sin C}{\cos A\cos C}-1\right)=1,
which simplifies to
2(sinAsinCcosAcosC)=1,2(\sin A\sin C-\cos A\cos C)=1,
and thereby
cos(A+C)=12.\cos(A+C)=-\frac{1}{2}.
Thus, we have
cosB=cos(A+C)=12.\cos B=-\cos(A+C)=\frac{1}{2}.
Considering that 0<B<π0 < B < \pi, we can deduce that
B=π3.B=\frac{\pi}{3}.

(Ⅱ) By the law of cosines, we have
cosB=a2+c2b22ac=12.\cos B= \frac{a^{2}+c^{2}-b^{2}}{2ac}=\frac{1}{2}.
Therefore, considering a+c=332a+c=\frac{3\sqrt{3}}{2} and b=3b=\sqrt{3}, we get
(a+c)22acb22ac=12.\frac{(a+c)^{2}-2ac-b^{2}}{2ac}=\frac{1}{2}.
Substituting the given values, we have
2742ac3=ac,\frac{27}{4}-2ac-3=ac, which leads to
ac=54.ac=\frac{5}{4}.
Consequently, the area of triangle ABCABC can be calculated as
SABC=12acsinB=12×54×32=5316.S_{\triangle ABC}=\frac{1}{2}ac\sin B=\frac{1}{2}\times\frac{5}{4}\times\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}=\boxed{\frac{5\sqrt{3}}{16}}.

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