Difference between revisions of "1989 AIME Problems/Problem 12"
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== Problem == | == Problem == | ||
Let <math>ABCD</math> be a [[tetrahedron]] with <math>AB=41</math>, <math>AC=7</math>, <math>AD=18</math>, <math>BC=36</math>, <math>BD=27</math>, and <math>CD=13</math>, as shown in the figure. Let <math>d</math> be the distance between the [[midpoint]]s of [[edge]]s <math>AB</math> and <math>CD</math>. Find <math>d^{2}</math>. | Let <math>ABCD</math> be a [[tetrahedron]] with <math>AB=41</math>, <math>AC=7</math>, <math>AD=18</math>, <math>BC=36</math>, <math>BD=27</math>, and <math>CD=13</math>, as shown in the figure. Let <math>d</math> be the distance between the [[midpoint]]s of [[edge]]s <math>AB</math> and <math>CD</math>. Find <math>d^{2}</math>. | ||
− | + | <asy> | |
− | + | defaultpen(fontsize(10)+0.8); size(175); | |
+ | pair A,B,C,D,M,P,Q; | ||
+ | C=origin; B=(8,0); D=IP(CR(C,6.5),CR(B,8)); A=(4,-3); P=midpoint(A--B); Q=midpoint(C--D); | ||
+ | draw(B--C--D--B--A--C^^A--D); draw(D--P--C^^P--Q, gray+dashed+0.5); | ||
+ | pen p=fontsize(12)+linewidth(3); | ||
+ | dot("$A$",A,down,p); dot("$B$",B,right,p); dot("$C$",C,left,p); dot("$D$",D,up,p); dot("$M$",P,dir(-45),p); dot("$N$",Q,0.2*(Q-P),p); | ||
+ | label("$27$",B--D,2*dir(30),fontsize(10)); label("$7$",A--C,2*dir(210),fontsize(10)); label("$18$",A--D,1.5*dir(30),fontsize(10)); label("$36$",(3,0),up,fontsize(10)); | ||
+ | </asy> | ||
== Solution == | == Solution == |
Latest revision as of 13:49, 1 August 2022
Problem
Let be a tetrahedron with
,
,
,
,
, and
, as shown in the figure. Let
be the distance between the midpoints of edges
and
. Find
.
Solution
Call the midpoint of
and the midpoint of
.
is the median of triangle
. The formula for the length of a median is
, where
,
, and
are the side lengths of triangle, and
is the side that is bisected by median
. The formula is a direct result of the Law of Cosines applied twice with the angles formed by the median (Stewart's Theorem). We can also get this formula from the parallelogram law, that the sum of the squares of the diagonals is equal to the squares of the sides of a parallelogram (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallelogram_law).
We first find , which is the median of
.
Now we must find , which is the median of
.
Now that we know the sides of , we proceed to find the length of
.
See also
1989 AIME (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.