1999 AIME Problems/Problem 14
Problem
Point is located inside traingle
so that angles
and
are all congruent. The sides of the triangle have lengths
and
and the tangent of angle
is
where
and
are relatively prime positive integers. Find
Solution
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Solution 1
Drop perpendiculars from to the three sides of
and let them meet
and
at
and
respectively. Let
and
. We have that
We can then use the tool of calculating area in two ways
On the other hand,
We still need
though. We have all these right triangles and we haven't even touched Pythagoras. So we give it a shot:
Adding
gives
Recall that we found that
. Plugging in
, we get
, giving us
for an answer.
Solution 2
Let ,
,
,
,
, and
.
So by the Law of Cosines, we have:
Adding these equations and rearranging, we have:
Now
, by Heron's formula.
Now the area of a triangle, , where
and
are sides on either side of an angle,
. So,
Adding these equations yields:
Dividing
by
, we have:
Thus,
.
See also
1999 AIME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 13 |
Followed by Problem 15 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 | ||
All AIME Problems and Solutions |