2002 AIME II Problems/Problem 14
Problem
The perimeter of triangle is
, and the angle
is a right angle. A circle of radius
with center
on
is drawn so that it is tangent to
and
. Given that
where
and
are relatively prime positive integers, find
.
Solution 1
Let the circle intersect at
. Then note
and
are similar. Also note that
by power of a point. Using the fact that the ratio of corresponding sides in similar triangles is equal to the ratio of their perimeters, we have
Solving,
. So the ratio of the side lengths of the triangles is 2. Therefore,
so
and
Substituting for
, we see that
, so
and the answer is
.
Solution 2
Reflect triangle across line
, creating an isoceles triangle. Let
be the distance from the top of the circle to point
, with
as
. Given the perimeter is 152, subtracting the altitude yields the semiperimeter
of the isoceles triangle, as
. The area of the isoceles triangle is:
Now use similarity, draw perpendicular from to
, name the new point
. Triangle
is similar to triangle
, by AA Similarity. Equating the legs, we get:
Solving for , it yields
.
The cancels, yielding a quadratic. Solving yields
.
Add
to find
, yielding
or
.
Solution 3
Let the foot of the perpendicular from to
be
now
Also let
and
This means that
, since
is on the angle bisector of
We have that so
However , so
We now use the fact that the perimeter of is
:
This quadratic factors as
so
, and
Solution 4
Let be the foot of the altitude from
to
and notice how
is a radius of the circle. Also, we have that
and
so
is congruent to
This means that because
is the foot of the angle bisector from
Then, let We have that
so
is similar to
Let
and let
be the perimeter of
By similarity, we have that the perimeter of
is
so
so
Solving for
we have that
and using
we find that
so
Finally, let We have by the angle bisector theorem that
so using the perimeter information one more time we get
and solving gives us
~BS2012
See also
2002 AIME II (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 |
The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.