# 2005 AIME I Problems/Problem 10

## Problem

Triangle $ABC$ lies in the Cartesian Plane and has an area of 70. The coordinates of $B$ and $C$ are $(12,19)$ and $(23,20),$ respectively, and the coordinates of $A$ are $(p,q).$ The line containing the median to side $BC$ has slope $-5.$ Find the largest possible value of $p+q.$

## Solution

The midpoint $M$ of line segment $\overline{BC}$ is $\left(\frac{35}{2}, \frac{39}{2}\right)$. Let $A'$ be the point $(17, 22)$, which lies along the line through $M$ of slope $-5$. The area of triangle $A'BC$ can be computed in a number of ways (one possibility: extend $A'B$ until it hits the line $y = 19$, and subtract one triangle from another), and each such calculation gives an area of 14. This is $\frac{1}{5}$ of our needed area, so we simply need the point $A$ to be 5 times as far from $M$ as $A'$ is. Thus $A = \left(\frac{35}{2}, \frac{39}{2}\right) \pm 5\left(-\frac{1}{2}, \frac{5}{2}\right)$, and the sum of coordinates will be larger if we take the positive value, so $A = \left(\frac{35}{2} - \frac{5}2, \frac{39}{2} + \frac{25}{2}\right)$ and the answer is $\frac{35}{2} - \frac{5}2 + \frac{39}{2} + \frac{25}{2} = 047$.