1997 JBMO Problems/Problem 4

Problem

Determine the triangle with sides $a,b,c$ and circumradius $R$ for which $R(b+c) = a\sqrt{bc}$ .

Solution

Solving for $R$ yields $R = \tfrac{a\sqrt{bc}}{b+c}$ . We can substitute $R$ into the area formula $A = \tfrac{abc}{4R}$ to get $\begin{align*} A &= \frac{abc}{4 \cdot \tfrac{a\sqrt{bc}}{b+c} } \\ &= \frac{abc}{4a\sqrt{bc}} \cdot (b+c) \\ &= \frac{(b+c)\sqrt{bc}}{4}. \end{align*}$ We also know that $A = \tfrac{1}{2}ab \sin(\theta)$ , where $\theta$ is the angle between sides $b$ and $c.$ Substituting this yields $\begin{align*} \tfrac{1}{2}ab \sin(\theta) &= \frac{(b+c)\sqrt{bc}}{4} \\ 2\sqrt{bc} \cdot \sin(\theta) &= b+c \\ \sin(\theta) &= \frac{b+c}{2\sqrt{bc}} \end{align*}$ Since $\theta$ is inside a triangle, $0 < \sin{\theta} \le 1$ .

1997 JBMO (Problems • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 3	Followed by Problem 5
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5
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1997 JBMO Problems/Problem 4

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