2012 AIME II Problems/Problem 15

Problem 15

Triangle $ABC$ is inscribed in circle $\omega$ with $AB=5$ , $BC=7$ , and $AC=3$ . The bisector of angle $A$ meets side $\overline{BC}$ at $D$ and circle $\omega$ at a second point $E$ . Let $\gamma$ be the circle with diameter $\overline{DE}$ . Circles $\omega$ and $\gamma$ meet at $E$ and a second point $F$ . Then $AF^2 = \frac mn$ , where $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $m+n$ .

Solution Using Only Elementary Geometry Methods

Let $P$ be the unique point on circle $\omega$ such that $\bigtriangleup BCP$ is equilateral. Point $E$ must be the point on $\omega$ such that $\angle PED$ is right. We extend line $ED$ to hit circle $\omega$ again at $X$ .

Claim 1: $X$ is the midpoint of minor arc $\overarc{BC}$ . Proof: Notice that $\angle PEX$ and $\angle PAX$ are subtended by the same arc, thus they are both equal to 90 degrees.

Now it is obvious that $\bigtriangleup PED \sim \bigtriangleup ADX$ . After this, we length chase with similar triangles and Pythag, which yields $AP = 8$ , $EX = \frac{56}{\sqrt{57}}$ , $AX = \frac{2}{\sqrt{3}}$ , $PE = \frac{14}{\sqrt{19}}$ , and $PX = \frac{14}{\sqrt{3}}$ . We can tie this all together with Ptolemy's theorem for cyclic quadrilaterals, and we find that $AE = \frac{30}{\sqrt{19}}$ . Thus, $AE^2 = \frac{900}{19}$ , and the answer is $\boxed{919}$ -jj_ca888

Quick Solution using Olympiad Terms (Similar to above)

Take a force-overlaid inversion about $A$ and note $D$ and $E$ map to each other. As $DE$ was originally the diameter of $\gamma$ , $DE$ is still the diameter of $\gamma$ . Thus $\gamma$ is preserved. Note that the midpoint $M$ of $BC$ lies on $\gamma$ , and $BC$ and $\omega$ are swapped. Thus points $F$ and $M$ map to each other, and are isogonal. It follows that $AF$ is a symmedian of $\triangle{ABC}$ , or that $ABFC$ is harmonic. Then $(AB)(FC)=(BF)(CA)$ , and thus we can let $BF=5x, CF=3x$ for some $x$ . By the LoC, it is easy to see $\angle{BAC}=120^\circ$ so $(5x)^2+(3x)^2-2\cos{60^\circ}(5x)(3x)=49$ . Solving gives $x^2=\frac{49}{19}$ , from which by Ptolemy's we see $AF=\frac{30}{\sqrt{19}}$ . We conclude the answer is $900+19=\boxed{919}$ , as desired.

- Emathmaster Quick Side Note: You might be wondering what the motivation for this solution is. Most of the people who've done EGMO Chapter 8 should recognize this as problem 8.32 (2009 Russian Olympiad) with the computational finish afterwards. Now if you haven't done this, but still know what inversion is, here's the motivation. We'd see that it's kinda hard to angle chase, and if we could, it would still be a bit hard to apply (you could use trig, but it won't be so clean most likely). If you give up after realizing that angle chasing won't work, you'd likely go in a similar approach to Solution 1 (below) or maybe be a bit more insightful and go with the elementary solution above. Finally, we notice there's circles! Classic setup for inversion! Since we're involving an angle-bisector, the first thing that comes to mind is a force overlaid inversion described in Lemma 8.16 of EGMO (where we invert with radius $\sqrt{AB \cdot AC}$ and center $A$ , then reflect over the $A$ -angle bisector, which fixes $B, C$ ). We try applying this to the problem, and it's fruitful - we end up with this solution.

Solution 1

Use the angle bisector theorem to find $CD=\frac{21}{8}$ , $BD=\frac{35}{8}$ , and use Stewart's Theorem to find $AD=\frac{15}{8}$ . Use Power of the Point to find $DE=\frac{49}{8}$ , and so $AE=8$ . Use law of cosines to find $\angle CAD = \frac{\pi} {3}$ , hence $\angle BAD = \frac{\pi}{3}$ as well, and $\triangle BCE$ is equilateral, so $BC=CE=BE=7$ .

I'm sure there is a more elegant solution from here, but instead we'll do some hairy law of cosines:

$AE^2 = AF^2 + EF^2 - 2 \cdot AF \cdot EF \cdot \cos \angle AFE.$ (1)

$AF^2 = AE^2 + EF^2 - 2 \cdot AE \cdot EF \cdot \cos \angle AEF.$ Adding these two and simplifying we get:

$EF = AF \cdot \cos \angle AFE + AE \cdot \cos \angle AEF$ (2). Ah, but $\angle AFE = \angle ACE$ (since $F$ lies on $\omega$ ), and we can find $cos \angle ACE$ using the law of cosines:

$AE^2 = AC^2 + CE^2 - 2 \cdot AC \cdot CE \cdot \cos \angle ACE$ , and plugging in $AE = 8, AC = 3, BE = BC = 7,$ we get $\cos \angle ACE = -1/7 = \cos \angle AFE$ .

Also, $\angle AEF = \angle DEF$ , and $\angle DFE = \pi/2$ (since $F$ is on the circle $\gamma$ with diameter $DE$ ), so $\cos \angle AEF = EF/DE = 8 \cdot EF/49$ .

Plugging in all our values into equation (2), we get:

$EF = -\frac{AF}{7} + 8 \cdot \frac{8EF}{49}$ , or $EF = \frac{7}{15} \cdot AF$ .

Finally, we plug this into equation (1), yielding:

$8^2 = AF^2 + \frac{49}{225} \cdot AF^2 - 2 \cdot AF \cdot \frac{7AF}{15} \cdot \frac{-1}{7}$ . Thus,

$64 = \frac{AF^2}{225} \cdot (225+49+30),$ or $AF^2 = \frac{900}{19}.$ The answer is $\boxed{919}$ .

Solution 2

Let $a = BC$ , $b = CA$ , $c = AB$ for convenience. We claim that $AF$ is a symmedian. Indeed, let $M$ be the midpoint of segment $BC$ . Since $\angle EAB=\angle EAC$ , it follows that $EB = EC$ and consequently $EM\perp BC$ . Therefore, $M\in \gamma$ . Now let $G = FD\cap \omega$ . Since $EG$ is a diameter, $G$ lies on the perpendicular bisector of $BC$ ; hence $E$ , $M$ , $G$ are collinear. From $\angle DAG = \angle DMG = 90$ , it immediately follows that quadrilateral $ADMG$ is cyclic. Therefore, $\angle MAD = \angle MGD=\angle EAF$ , implying that $AF$ is a symmedian, as claimed.

The rest is standard; here's a quick way to finish. From above, quadrilateral $ABFC$ is harmonic, so $\dfrac{FB}{FC}=\dfrac{AB}{BC}=\dfrac{c}{a}$ . In conjunction with $\triangle ABF\sim\triangle AMC$ , it follows that $AF^2=\dfrac{b^2c^2}{AM^2}=\dfrac{4b^2c^2}{2b^2+2c^2-a^2}$ . (Notice that this holds for all triangles $ABC$ .) To finish, substitute $a = 7$ , $b=3$ , $c=5$ to obtain $AF^2=\dfrac{900}{19}\implies 900+19=\boxed{919}$ as before.

-Solution by thecmd999

Solution 3

$[asy] size(6cm); pair E,X,B,C,A,D,M,F,R,I; real z=sqrt(3)*14/3; real y=2*sqrt(3)/21; real x=224*sqrt(3)/57; E=(z,0); X=(0,0); D=(sqrt(3)*7/6,-7/8); M=(sqrt(3)*7/6,0); B=z/2*dir(60); C=z/2*dir(300); A=(y,-8/7); F=(x,-sqrt(3)*x/4); R=circumcenter(A,B,C); I=circumcenter(M,E,F); draw(E--X); draw(A--E); draw(A--B); draw(A--C); draw(B--C); draw(A--F); draw(X--F); draw(E--F); draw(circumcircle(A,B,C)); draw(circumcircle(M,F,E)); dot(D); dot(F); dot(A); dot(B); dot(C); dot(E); dot(X); dot(R); dot(I); label("$A$",A,dir(220)); label("$B$",B,dir(110)); label("$C$",C,dir(250)); label("$D$",D,dir(60)); label("$E$",E,dir(0)); label("$F$",F,dir(315)); label("$X$",X,dir(180)); [/asy]$ First of all, use the Angle Bisector Theorem to find that $BD=35/8$ and $CD=21/8$ , and use Stewart's Theorem to find that $AD=15/8$ . Then use Power of a Point to find that $DE=49/8$ . Then use the circumradius of a triangle formula to find that the length of the circumradius of $\triangle ABC$ is $\frac{7\sqrt{3}}{3}$ .

Since $DE$ is the diameter of circle $\gamma$ , $\angle DFE$ is $90^\circ$ . Extending $DF$ to intersect circle $\omega$ at $X$ , we find that $XE$ is the diameter of the circumcircle of $\triangle ABC$ (since $\angle DFE$ is $90^\circ$ ). Therefore, $XE=\frac{14\sqrt{3}}{3}$ .

Let $EF=x$ , $XD=a$ , and $DF=b$ . Then, by the Pythagorean Theorem,

$x^2+b^2=\left(\frac{49}{8}\right)^2=\frac{2401}{64}$

and

$x^2+(a+b)^2=\left(\frac{14\sqrt{3}}{3}\right)^2=\frac{196}{3}.$

Subtracting the first equation from the second, the $x^2$ term cancels out and we obtain:

$(a+b)^2-b^2=\frac{196}{3}-\frac{2401}{64}$

$a^2+2ab = \frac{5341}{192}.$

By Power of a Point, $ab=BD \cdot DC=735/64=2205/192$ , so

$a^2+2 \cdot \frac{2205}{192}=\frac{5341}{192}$

$a^2=\frac{931}{192}.$

Since $a=XD$ , $XD=\frac{7\sqrt{19}}{8\sqrt{3}}$ .

Because $\angle EXF$ and $\angle EAF$ intercept the same arc in circle $\omega$ and the same goes for $\angle XFA$ and $\angle XEA$ , $\angle EXF\cong\angle EAF$ and $\angle XFA\cong\angle XEA$ . Therefore, $\triangle XDE\sim\triangle ADF$ by AA Similarity. Since side lengths in similar triangles are proportional,

$\frac{AF}{\frac{15}{8}}=\frac{\frac{14\sqrt{3}}{3}}{\frac{7\sqrt{19}}{8\sqrt{3}}}$

$\frac{AF}{\frac{15}{8}}=\frac{16}{\sqrt{19}}$

$AF \cdot \sqrt{19} = 30$

$AF = \frac{30}{\sqrt{19}}.$

However, the problem asks for $AF^2$ , so $AF^2 = \frac{900}{19}\implies 900 + 19 = \boxed{919}$ .

-Solution by TheBoomBox77

Solution 4

It can be verified with law of cosines that $\angle BAC=120^\circ.$ Also, $E$ is the midpoint of major arc $BC$ so $BE=CE,$ and $\angle BEC=60.$ Thus $CBE$ is equilateral. Notice now that $\angle BFC=\angle BFE= 60.$ But $\angle DFE=90$ so $FD$ bisects $\angle BFC.$ Thus, $\frac{BF}{CF}=\frac{BD}{CD}=\frac{BA}{CA}=\frac{5}{3}.$

Let $BF=5a, CF=3a.$ By law of cosines on $BFC$ we find $a\sqrt{5^2+3^2-5*3}=a\sqrt{19}=7.$ But by ptolemy on $BFCA$ , $15a+15a=7*AF,$ so $AF= \frac{30}{\sqrt{19}},$ so $AF^2=\frac{900}{19}$ and the answer is $900+19=\boxed{919}$

~abacadaea

2012 AIME II (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
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