Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 309 of 400 #909 of 1964

Problem 909

AIME late
Algebra Difficulty 5.7 Find the answer

Question 94, Given planar vectors a,b,c\overrightarrow{\mathrm{a}}, \overrightarrow{\mathrm{b}}, \overrightarrow{\mathrm{c}} satisfy a=b2=c=1|\overrightarrow{\mathrm{a}}|=\frac{|\overrightarrow{\mathrm{b}}|}{2}=|\overrightarrow{\mathrm{c}}|=1, ab=1\overrightarrow{\mathrm{a}} \cdot \overrightarrow{\mathrm{b}}=1, try to find the range of c+a2+\left|\overrightarrow{\mathrm{c}}+\frac{\vec{a}}{2}\right|+ 12cb\frac{1}{2}|\overrightarrow{\mathrm{c}}-\overrightarrow{\mathrm{b}}|.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Official solution

Question 94, Solution: As shown in the figure, establish a plane with 0 as the origin. Let OA=a,OB=b,OC=C\overrightarrow{\mathrm{OA}}=\overrightarrow{\mathrm{a}}, \overrightarrow{\mathrm{OB}}=\overrightarrow{\mathrm{b}}, \overrightarrow{\mathrm{OC}}=\overrightarrow{\mathrm{C}}. According to the conditions, AA and CC are both on the unit circle centered at 0, OB=2|O B|=2, and BOA=60\angle B O A=60^{\circ}.
Extend AOA O to intersect 0\odot 0 at DD, and take the midpoint of ODO D as EE, then c+a2=EC\left|c+\frac{\vec{a}}{2}\right|=|E C|.
On OBO B, take point FF such that OF=12|O F|=\frac{1}{2}, then OFOC=OCOB=12\frac{O F \mid}{|O C|}=\frac{|O C|}{|O B|}=\frac{1}{2}, hence OCFOBC\triangle O C F \sim \triangle O B C, so 12cb=BC2=\frac{1}{2}|\vec{c}-\vec{b}|=\frac{|B C|}{2}= FC|\mathrm{FC}|. Therefore, we know:
c+a2+12cb=EC+FC \left|\vec{c}+\frac{\vec{a}}{2}\right|+\frac{1}{2}|\vec{c}-\vec{b}|=|\mathrm{EC}|+|\mathrm{FC}|
(1) First, find the minimum value. In fact, according to Ptolemy's theorem:
ECOF+FCOEEFOCEC+FC3 |\mathrm{EC}| \cdot|\mathrm{OF}|+|\mathrm{FC}| \cdot|\mathrm{OE}| \geq|\mathrm{EF}| \cdot|\mathrm{OC}| \Rightarrow|\mathrm{EC}|+|\mathrm{FC}| \geq \sqrt{3}

Equality holds if and only if COD=60\angle C O D=60^{\circ}.
(2) Next, find the maximum value. In fact,
(EC+FC)22(EC2+FC2)=2[(OC2+OE22OCOEcosCOE)+(OC2+OF22OCOFcosCOF)]=2(2+12cosCOEcosCOF)2(2+12+2cosBOD2)=7 \begin{array}{l} (|\mathrm{EC}|+|\mathrm{FC}|)^{2} \leq 2\left(|\mathrm{EC}|^{2}+|\mathrm{FC}|^{2}\right) \\ =2\left[\left(\mathrm{OC}{ }^{2}+\mathrm{OE}^{2}-2 \mathrm{OC} \cdot \mathrm{OE} \cdot \cos \angle \mathrm{COE}\right)+\left(\mathrm{OC}^{2}+\mathrm{OF}^{2}-2 \mathrm{OC} \cdot \mathrm{OF} \cdot \cos \angle \mathrm{COF}\right)\right] \\ =2\left(2+\frac{1}{2}-\cos \angle \mathrm{COE}-\cos \angle \mathrm{COF}\right) \\ \leq 2\left(2+\frac{1}{2}+2 \cos \frac{\angle \mathrm{BOD}}{2}\right)=7 \end{array}

Thus, EC+FC7|\mathrm{EC}|+|\mathrm{FC}| \leq \sqrt{7}, equality holds if and only if COD=COB=120\angle C O D=\angle C O B=120^{\circ}.

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