1992 AIME Problems/Problem 13

Problem

Triangle $ABC$ has $AB=9$ and $BC: AC=40: 41$ . What's the largest area that this triangle can have?

Solution

Solution 1

First, consider the triangle in a coordinate system with vertices at $(0,0)$ , $(9,0)$ , and $(a,b)$ . Applying the distance formula, we see that $\frac{ \sqrt{a^2 + b^2} }{ \sqrt{ (a-9)^2 + b^2 } } = \frac{40}{41}$ .

We want to maximize $b$ , the height, with $9$ being the base.

Simplifying gives $-a^2 -\frac{3200}{9}a +1600 = b^2$ .

To maximize $b$ , we want to maximize $b^2$ . So if we can write: $b^2=-(a+n)^2+m$ , then $m$ is the maximum value of $b^2$ (this follows directly from the trivial inequality, because if ${x^2 \ge 0}$ then plugging in $a+n$ for $x$ gives us ${(a+n)^2 \ge 0}$ ).

$b^2=-a^2 -\frac{3200}{9}a +1600=-(a +\frac{1600}{9})^2 +1600+(\frac{1600}{9})^2$ .

$\Rightarrow b\le\sqrt{1600+(\frac{1600}{9})^2}=40\sqrt{1+\frac{1600}{81}}=\frac{40}{9}\sqrt{1681}=\frac{40\cdot 41}{9}$ .

Then the area is $9\cdot\frac{1}{2} \cdot \frac{40\cdot 41}{9} = \boxed{820}$ .

Solution 2

Let the three sides be $9,40x,41x$ , so the area is $\frac14\sqrt {(81^2 - 81x^2)(81x^2 - 1)}$ by Heron's formula. By AM-GM, $\sqrt {(81^2 - 81x^2)(81x^2 - 1)}\le\frac {81^2 - 1}2$ , and the maximum possible area is $\frac14\cdot\frac {81^2 - 1}2 = \frac18(81 - 1)(81 + 1) = 10\cdot82 = \boxed{820}$ . This occurs when $81^2 - 81x^2 = 81x^2 - 1\implies x = \frac {4\sqrt {205}}9$ .

1992 AIME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 12	Followed by Problem 14
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1992 AIME Problems/Problem 13

Contents

Problem

Solution

Solution 1

Solution 2

See also