2019 AIME I Problems/Problem 12
Contents
[hide]Problem
Given , there are complex numbers with the property that , , and are the vertices of a right triangle in the complex plane with a right angle at . There are positive integers and such that one such value of is . Find .
Solution 1
Notice that we must have However, , so Then, the real part of is . Since , let . Then, It follows that , and the requested sum is .
(Solution by TheUltimate123)
Solution 2
We will use the fact that segments and are perpendicular in the complex plane if and only if . To prove this, note that when dividing two complex numbers you subtract the angle of one from the other. Therefore, if the two complex numbers are perpendicular, the difference between their arguments will be 90 degrees, so subtracting the angles will yield an imaginary number with no real part(an argument of 90 degrees puts a complex number on the imaginary axis).
Now to apply this:
The factorization of the nasty denominator above is made easier with the intuition that must be a divisor for the problem to lead anywhere. Now we know so using the fact that the imaginary part of is and calling the real part r,
solving the above quadratic yields so our answer is
Solution 3
I would like to use a famous method, namely the coni method.
Statement .If we consider there complex number in argand plane then .
According to the question given, we can assume , respectively.
WLOG,. According to the question .
So,.
Now, .
. WLOG, .where .
So,. Solving, .get ,
±. So, possible value of .
. ~ftheftics.
Proof of this method
Note that if we translate a triangle, the measures of all of its angles stay the same. So we can translate on the complex plane so that . Let the images of be respectively. Then, we can use the formula:
(This is known as Euler's Formula.)
Using Euler's formula (represent each complex number in polar form, then use exponent identities), we can show that So this method is valid. ~Math4Life2020
Solution 4
It is well known that is perpendicular to iff is a pure imaginary number. Here, we have that , , and . This means that this is equivalent to being a pure imaginary number. Plugging in , we have that being pure imaginary. Factoring and simplifying, we find that this is simply equivalent to being pure imaginary. We let , so this is equivalent to being pure imaginary. Expanding the product, this is equivalent to being pure imaginary. Taking the real part of this, and setting this equal to , we have that . Since , we have that . By the quadratic formula, , and taking the positive root gives that , so the answer is
~smartninja2000
Solution 5 (Official MAA)
The arguments of the two complex numbers differ by if the ratio of the numbers is a pure imaginary number. Thus three distinct complex numbers and form a right triangle at if and only if has real part equal to Hence must have real part equal to If the real part of is which is when The requested sum is
Solution 6 (Dot product)
Firstly, the angle between the three complex numbers is equivalent to the angle between and .
Using to help expand,
and .
The second equation can be rewritten as
Note that the angle between and is the same as the angle between and . The proof of this is as follows:
Treating the complex numbers like vectors (e.g. turns into ) we have
.
Using the dot product formula for the cosine of the angle between the other two vectors (1, c + di) we get the same result. Thus, it is proven.
Now, we see that the three resulting complex numbers have the same angle as and as a factor of can be taken out of both expressions. Note that the value of clearly is not 0, nor is it 20 as it has a value of .
Expanding with yields
. Turning these into vectors again, the resulting relation is
In order for this thing to be 0, the numerator must be 0, so setting it equal to 0 yields
. Neither of these make the denominator in the expression 0, so they are valid. The requested result is the positive root, so the answer is .
See also
2019 AIME I (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 11 |
Followed by Problem 13 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 | ||
All AIME Problems and Solutions |
The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.