2016 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 21
Contents
Problem
A quadrilateral is inscribed in a circle of radius Three of the sides of this quadrilateral have length
What is the length of its fourth side?
Solution 1
Let . Let
be the center of the circle. Then
is twice the altitude of
. Since
is isosceles we can compute its area to be
, hence
.
Now by Ptolemy's Theorem we have .
Solution 2
Using trig. Since all three sides equal , they subtend three equal angles from the center. The right triangle between the center of the circle, a vertex, and the midpoint between two vertices has side lengths
by the Pythagorean Theorem. Thus, the sine of half of the subtended angle is
. Similarly, the cosine is
.
Since there are three sides, and since
,we seek to find
.
First,
and
by Pythagorean.
See Also
2016 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
Preceded by Problem 20 |
Followed by Problem 22 |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 | |
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions |
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