2013 AIME II Problems/Problem 8
A hexagon that is inscribed in a circle has side lengths , , , , , and in that order. The radius of the circle can be written as , where and are positive integers. Find .
Solution
Solution 1
Let us call the hexagon , where , and . We can just consider one half of the hexagon, , to make matters simpler. Draw a line from the center of the circle, , to the midpoint of , . Now, draw a line from to the midpoint of , . Clearly, , because , and , for similar reasons. Also notice that . Let us call . Therefore, , and so . Let us label the radius of the circle . This means Now we can use simple trigonometry to solve for . Recall that : That means . Recall that : That means . Let . Substitute to get and Now substitute the first equation into the second equation: Multiplying both sides by and reordering gives us the quadratic Using the quadratic equation to solve, we get that (because gives a negative value), so the answer is
Solution 2
Using the trapezoid mentioned above, draw an altitude of the trapezoid passing through point onto at point . Now, we can use the pythagorean theorem: . Expanding and combining like terms gives us the quadratic and solving for gives . So the solution is
Solution 3
Join the diameter of the circle and let the length be . By Ptolemy's Theorem on trapezoid , . Since it is an isosceles trapezoid, both diagonals are equal. Let them be equal to each. Then
Since is subtended by the diameter, it is right. Hence by the Pythagorean Theorem with right :
From the above equations, we have:
Since the radius is half the diameter, it is , so the answer is .