2021 Fall AMC 12B Problems/Problem 24

Revision as of 18:53, 25 November 2021 by Kevinmathz (talk | contribs) (Solution)

Solution

Claim: $\triangle ADC \sim \triangle ABE.$

Proof: Note that $\angle CAD = \angle CAE = \angle EAB$ and $\angle DCA = \angle BCA = \angle BEA$ meaning that our claim is true by AA similarity.

Because of this similarity, we have that \[\frac{AC}{AD} = \frac{AE}{AB} \to AB \cdot AC = AD \cdot AE = AB \cdot AF\] by Power of a Point. Thus, $AC=AF=20.$

Now, note that $\angle CAF = \angle CAB$ and plug into Law of Cosines to find the angle's cosine: \[AB^2+AC^2-2\cdot AB \cdot AC \cdot \cos(\angle CAB) = BC^2 \to \cos(\angle CAB) = -\frac{1}{8}.\]

So, we observe that we can use Law of Cosines again to find $CF$: \[AF^2+AC^2-2 \cdot AF \cdot AC \cdot \cos(\angle CAF) = CF^2 \to CF = \boxed{\textbf{(C) }30}.\]

- kevinmathz