2000 AIME II Problems/Problem 8
Contents
Problem
In trapezoid , leg
is perpendicular to bases
and
, and diagonals
and
are perpendicular. Given that
and
, find
.
Solution
Solution 1
Let be the height of the trapezoid, and let
. Since
, it follows that
, so
.
Let be the foot of the altitude from
to
. Then
, and
is a right triangle. By the Pythagorean Theorem,
The positive solution to this quadratic equation is .
![[asy] size(200); pathpen = linewidth(0.7); pair C=(0,0),B=(0,110^.5),A=(11^.5,B.y),D=(10*11^.5,0),E=foot(A,C,D); D(MP("A",A,(2,.5))--MP("B",B,W)--MP("C",C)--MP("D",D)--cycle); D(A--C);D(B--D);D(A--E,linetype("4 4") + linewidth(0.7)); MP("\sqrt{11}",(A+B)/2,N);MP("\sqrt{1001}",(A+D)/2,NE);MP("\sqrt{1001}",(A+D)/2,NE);MP("x",(B+C)/2,W);MP("y",(D+C)/2);D(rightanglemark(B,IP(A--C,B--D),C,20)); [/asy]](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/3/3/c/33cba5bae648539c2b01af0bfdabeeb2f45e237b.png)
Solution 2
Let . Dropping the altitude from
and using the Pythagorean Theorem tells us that
. Therefore, we know that vector
and vector
. Now we know that these vectors are perpendicular, so their dot product is 0.
As above, we can solve this quadratic to get the positve solution
.
Solution 3
Let and
. From Pythagoras with
, we obtain
. Since
and
are perpendicular diagonals of a quadrilateral, then
, so we have
Substituting
and simplifying yields
and the quadratic formula gives
. Then from
, we plug in
to find
.
Solution 4
Let be the intersection of the diagonals. Since the diagonals are perpendicular, applying the Pythagorean Theorem multiple times we have
Followed by dropping the perpendicular like in solution 1, we obtain system of equation
Rearrange the first equation yields
Equating it with the second equation we have
Which gives
.
See also
2000 AIME II (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 7 |
Followed by Problem 9 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 | ||
All AIME Problems and Solutions |
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