Difference between revisions of "2015 AIME II Problems/Problem 7"

Revision as of 09:25, 30 March 2015

Problem

Triangle $ABC$ has side lengths $AB = 12$ , $BC = 25$ , and $CA = 17$ . Rectangle $PQRS$ has vertex $P$ on $\overline{AB}$ , vertex $Q$ on $\overline{AC}$ , and vertices $R$ and $S$ on $\overline{BC}$ . In terms of the side length $PQ = w$ , the area of $PQRS$ can be expressed as the quadratic polynomial

Area( $PQRS$ ) = $\alpha w - \beta \cdot w^2$ .

Then the coefficient $\beta = \frac{m}{n}$ , where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $m+n$ .

Solution 1

If $\omega = 25$ , the area of rectangle $PQRS$ is $0$ , so

$\alpha\omega - \beta\omega^2 = 25\alpha - 625\beta = 0$

and $\alpha = 25\beta$ . If $\omega = \frac{25}{2}$ , we can reflect $APQ$ over PQ, $PBS$ over $PS$ , and $QCR$ over $QR$ to completely cover rectangle $PQRS$ , so the area of $PQRS$ is half the area of the triangle. Using Heron's formula, since $s = \frac{12 + 17 + 25}{2} = 27$ ,

$[ABC] = \sqrt{27 \cdot 15 \cdot 10 \cdot 2} = 90$

so

$45 = \alpha\omega - \beta\omega^2 = \frac{625}{2} \beta - \beta\frac{625}{4} = \beta\frac{625}{4}$

and

$\beta = \frac{180}{625} = \frac{36}{125}$

so the answer is $m + n = 36 + 125 = \boxed{161}$ .

Solution 2

$[asy] unitsize(35); draw(Circle((-1,0),1)); draw(Circle((4,0),4)); pair A,O_1, O_2, B,C,D,E,N,K,L,X,Y; A=(0,0);O_1=(-1,0);O_2=(4,0);B=(-24/15,-12/15);D=(-8/13,12/13);E=(32/13,-48/13);C=(24/15,-48/15);N=extension(E,B,O_2,O_1);K=foot(B,O_1,N);L=foot(C,O_2,N);X=foot(B,A,D);Y=foot(C,E,A); label("$A$",A,NE);label("$O_1$",O_1,NE);label("$O_2$",O_2,NE);label("$B$",B,SW);label("$C$",C,SW);label("$D$",D,NE);label("$E$",E,NE);label("$N$",N,W);label("$K$",(-24/15,0.2));label("$L$",(24/15,0.2));label("$n$",(-0.8,-0.12));label("$p$",((29/15,-48/15)));label("$\mathcal{P}$",(-1.6,1.1));label("$\mathcal{Q}$",(6,4)); draw(A--B--D--cycle);draw(A--E--C--cycle);draw(C--N);draw(O_2--N);draw(O_1--B,dashed);draw(O_2--C,dashed); dot(O_1);dot(O_2); draw(rightanglemark(O_1,B,N,5));draw(rightanglemark(O_2,C,N,5));draw(C--L,dashed);draw(B--K,dashed);draw(C--Y);draw(B--X); [/asy]$ Similar triangles can also solve the problem.

First, solve for the area of the triangle. $[ABC] = 90$ . This can be done by Heron's Formula or placing an $8-15-17$ right triangle on $BC$ and solving. (The $8$ side would be collinear with line $AB$ )

After finding the area, solve for the altitude to $BC$ . Let $E$ be the intersection of the altitude from $A$ and side $BC$ . Then $AE = \frac{36}{5}$ . Solving for $BE$ using the Pythagorean Formula, we get $BE = \frac{48}{5}$ . We then know that $CE = \frac{77}{5}$ .

Now consider the rectangle $PQRS$ . Since $SR$ is collinear with $BC$ and parallel to $PQ$ , $PQ$ is parallel to $BC$ meaning $\Delta APQ$ is similar to $\Delta ABC$ .

Let $F$ be the intersection between $AE$ and $PQ$ . By the similar triangles, we know that $\frac{PF}{FQ}=\frac{BE}{EC} = \frac{48}{77}$ . Since $PF+FQ=PQ=\omega$ . We can solve for $PF$ and $FQ$ in terms of $\omega$ . We get that $PF=\frac{48}{125} \omega$ and $FQ=\frac{77}{125} \omega$ .

Let's work with $PF$ . We know that $PQ$ is parallel to $BC$ so $\Delta APF$ is similar to $\Delta ABE$ . We can set up the proportion:

$\frac{AF}{PF}=\frac{AE}{BE}=\frac{3}{4}$ . Solving for $AF$ , $AF = \frac{3}{4} PF = \frac{3}{4} \cdot \frac{48}{125} \omega = \frac{36}{125} \omega$ .

We can solve for $PS$ then since we know that $PS=FE$ and $FE= AE - AF = \frac{36}{5} - \frac{36}{125} \omega$ .

Therefore, $[PQRS] = PQ \cdot PS = \omega (\frac{36}{5} - \frac{36}{125} \omega) = \frac{36}{5}\omega - \frac{36}{125} \omega^2$ .

This means that $\beta = \frac{36}{125} \Rightarrow (m,n) = (36,125) \Rightarrow m+n = \boxed{161}$ .

- solution by abvenkgoo

Solution 3

Heron's Formula gives $[ABC] = \sqrt{27 \cdot 15 \cdot 10 \cdot 2} = 90,$ so the altitude from $A$ to $BC$ has length $\dfrac{2[ABC]}{BC} = \dfrac{36}{5}.$

Now, draw a parallel to $AB$ from $Q$ , intersecting $BC$ at $T$ . Then $BT = w$ in parallelogram $QPBT$ , and so $CT = 25 - w$ . Clearly, $CQT$ and $CAB$ are similar triangles, and so their altitudes have lengths proportional to their corresponding base sides, and so $\frac{QR}{\frac{36}{5}} = \frac{25 - w}{25}.$ Solving gives $[PQRS] = \dfrac{36}{5} \cdot \dfrac{25 - w}{25} = \dfrac{36w}{5} - \dfrac{36w^2}{125}$ , so the answer is $36 + 125 = 161$ .

- solution by suli

2015 AIME II (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
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