Difference between revisions of "2019 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 16"

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==See Also==
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{{AMC12 box|year=2019|ab=B|num-b=15|num-a=17}}
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{{MAA Notice}}

Revision as of 14:27, 14 February 2019

Problem

In $\triangle ABC$ with a right angle at $C$, point $D$ lies in the interior of $\overline{AB}$ and point $E$ lies in the interior of $\overline{BC}$ so that $AC=CD,$ $DE=EB,$ and the ratio $AC:DE=4:3$. What is the ratio $AD:DB?$

$\textbf{(A) }2:3\qquad\textbf{(B) }2:\sqrt{5}\qquad\textbf{(C) }1:1\qquad\textbf{(D) }3:\sqrt{5}\qquad\textbf{(E) }3:2$

Solution

Without loss of generality, let $AC = CD = 4$ and $DE = EB = 3$. Let $\angle A = \alpha$ and $\angle B = \beta = 90^{\circ} - \alpha$. As $\triangle ACD$ and $\triangle DEB$ are isosceles, $\angle ADC = \alpha$ and $\angle BDE = \beta$. Then $\angle CDE = 180^{\circ} - \alpha - \beta = 90^{\circ}$, so $\triangle CDE$ is a 3-4-5 triangle with $CE = 5$.

Then $CB = 5+3 = 8$, and $\triangle ABC$ is a 1-2-$\sqrt{5}$ triangle.

On isosceles triangles $\triangle ACD$ and $\triangle DEB$, drop altitudes from $C$ and $E$ onto $AB$; denote the feet of these altitudes by $P_C$ and $P_E$ respectively. Then $\triangle ACP_C \sim \triangle ABC$ by AAA similarity, so we get that $AP_C = P_CD = \frac{4}{\sqrt{5}}$, and $AD = 2 \times \frac{4}{\sqrt{5}}$. Similarly we get $BD = 2 \times \frac{6}{\sqrt{5}}$, and $AD:DB = \boxed{\textbf{(A) } 2:3}$.

-scrabbler94

See Also

2019 AMC 12B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 15
Followed by
Problem 17
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

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