2017 AIME I Problems/Problem 15

Problem 15

The area of the smallest equilateral triangle with one vertex on each of the sides of the right triangle with side lengths $2\sqrt{3},~5,$ and $\sqrt{37},$ as shown, is $\frac{m\sqrt{p}}{n},$ where $m,~n,$ and $p$ are positive integers, $m$ and $n$ are relatively prime, and $p$ is not divisible by the square of any prime. Find $m+n+p.$

Solution 1

Lemma. If $x,y$ satisfy $px+qy=1$ , then the minimal value of $\sqrt{x^2+y^2}$ is $\frac{1}{\sqrt{p^2+q^2}}$ .

Proof. Recall that the distance between the point $(x_0,y_0)$ and the line $px+qy+r = 0$ is given by $\frac{|px_0+qy_0+r|}{\sqrt{p^2+q^2}}$ . In particular, the distance between the origin and any point $(x,y)$ on the line $px+qy=1$ is at least $\frac{1}{\sqrt{p^2+q^2}}$ .

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Let the vertices of the right triangle be $(0,0),(5,0),(0,2\sqrt{3}),$ and let $(a,0),(0,b)$ be two of the vertices of the equilateral triangle. Then, the third vertex of the equilateral triangle is $\left(\frac{a+\sqrt{3}b}{2},\frac{\sqrt{3}a+b}{2}\right)$ . This point must lie on the hypotenuse $\frac{x}{5} + \frac{y}{2\sqrt{3}} = 1$ , i.e. $a,b$ must satisfy $\frac{a+\sqrt{3}b}{10}+\frac{\sqrt{3}a+b}{4\sqrt{3}} = 1,$ which can be simplified to $\frac{7}{20}a + \frac{11\sqrt{3}}{60}b = 1.$

By the lemma, the minimal value of $\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$ is $\frac{1}{\sqrt{\left(\frac{7}{20}\right)^2 + \left(\frac{11\sqrt{3}}{60}\right)^2}} = \frac{10\sqrt{3}}{\sqrt{67}},$ so the minimal area of the equilateral triangle is $\frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} \cdot \left(\frac{10\sqrt{3}}{\sqrt{67}}\right)^2 = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} \cdot \frac{300}{67} = \frac{75\sqrt{3}}{67},$ and hence the answer is $75+3+67=\boxed{145}$ .

Solution 2 (No Coordinates)

Let $S$ be the triangle with side lengths $2\sqrt{3},~5,$ and $\sqrt{37}$ .

We will think about this problem backwards, by constructing a triangle as large as possible (We will call it $T$ , for convenience) which is similar to $S$ with vertices outside of a unit equilateral triangle $\triangle ABC$ , such that each vertex of the equilateral triangle lies on a side of $T$ . After we find the side lengths of $T$ , we will use ratios to trace back towards the original problem.

First of all, let $\theta = 90^{\circ}$ , $\alpha = \arctan{\frac{2\sqrt{3}}{5}}$ , and $\beta = \arctan{\frac{5}{2\sqrt{3}}}$ (These three angles are simply the angles of triangle $S$ ; out of these three angles, $\alpha$ is the smallest angle, and $\theta$ is the largest angle). Then let us consider a point $P$ inside $\triangle ABC$ such that $\angle APB = 180^{\circ} - \theta$ , $\angle BPC = 180^{\circ} - \alpha$ , and $\angle APC = 180^{\circ} - \beta$ . Construct the circumcircles $\omega_{AB}, ~\omega_{BC},$ and $\omega_{AC}$ of triangles $APB, ~BPC,$ and $APC$ respectively.

From here, we will prove the lemma that if we choose points $X$ , $Y$ , and $Z$ on circumcircles $\omega_{AB}, ~\omega_{BC},$ and $\omega_{AC}$ respectively such that $X$ , $B$ , and $Y$ are collinear and $Y$ , $C$ , and $Z$ are collinear, then $Z$ , $A$ , and $X$ must be collinear. First of all, if we let $\angle PAX = m$ , then $\angle PBX = 180^{\circ} - m$ (by the properties of cyclic quadrilaterals), $\angle PBY = m$ (by adjacent angles), $\angle PCY = 180^{\circ} - m$ (by cyclic quadrilaterals), $\angle PCZ = m$ (adjacent angles), and $\angle PAZ = 180^{\circ} - m$ (cyclic quadrilaterals). Since $\angle PAX$ and $\angle PAZ$ are supplementary, $Z$ , $A$ , and $X$ are collinear as desired. Hence, $\triangle XYZ$ has an inscribed equilateral triangle $ABC$ .

In addition, now we know that all triangles $XYZ$ (as described above) must be similar to triangle $S$ , as $\angle AXB = \theta$ and $\angle BYC = \alpha$ , so we have developed $AA$ similarity between the two triangles. Thus, $\triangle XYZ$ is the triangle similar to $S$ which we were desiring. Our goal now is to maximize the length of $XY$ , in order to maximize the area of $XYZ$ , to achieve our original goal.

Note that, all triangles $PYX$ are similar to each other if $Y$ , $B$ , and $X$ are collinear. This is because $\angle PYB$ is constant, and $\angle PXB$ is also a constant value. Then we have $AA$ similarity between this set of triangles. To maximize $XY$ , we can instead maximize $PY$ , which is simply the diameter of $\omega_{BC}$ . From there, we can determine that $\angle PBY = 90^{\circ}$ , and with similar logic, $PA$ , $PB$ , and $PC$ are perpendicular to $ZX$ , $XY$ , and $YZ$ respectively We have found our desired largest possible triangle $T$ .

All we have to do now is to calculate $YZ$ , and use ratios from similar triangles to determine the side length of the equilateral triangle inscribed within $S$ . First of all, we will prove that $\angle ZPY = \angle ACB + \angle AXB$ . By the properties of cyclic quadrilaterals, $\angle AXB = \angle PAB + \angle PBA$ , which means that $\angle ACB + \angle AXB = 180^{\circ} - \angle PAC - \angle PBC$ . Now we will show that $\angle ZPY = 180^{\circ} - \angle PAC - \angle PBC$ . Note that, by cyclic quadrilaterals, $\angle YZP = \angle PAC$ and $\angle ZYP = \angle PBC$ . Hence, $\angle ZPY = 180^{\circ} - \angle PAC - \angle PBC$ (since $\angle ZPY + \angle YZP + \angle ZYP = 180^{\circ}$ ), proving the aforementioned claim. Then, since $\angle ACB = 60^{\circ}$ and $\angle AXB = \theta = 90^{\circ}$ , $\angle ZPY = 150^{\circ}$ .

Now we calculate $PY$ and $PZ$ , which are simply the diameters of circumcircles $\omega_{BC}$ and $\omega_{AC}$ , respectively. By the extended law of sines, $PY = \frac{BC}{\sin{BPC}} = \frac{\sqrt{37}}{2\sqrt{3}}$ and $PZ = \frac{CA}{\sin{CPA}} = \frac{\sqrt{37}}{5}$ .

We can now solve for $ZY$ with the law of cosines:

$(ZY)^2 = \frac{37}{25} + \frac{37}{12} - \left(\frac{37}{5\sqrt{3}}\right)\left(-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}\right)$

$(ZY)^2 = \frac{37}{25} + \frac{37}{12} + \frac{37}{10}$

$(ZY)^2 = \frac{37 \cdot 67}{300}$

$ZY = \sqrt{37} \cdot \frac{\sqrt{67}}{10\sqrt{3}}$

Now we will apply this discovery towards our original triangle $S$ . Since the ratio between $ZY$ and the hypotenuse of $S$ is $\frac{\sqrt{67}}{10\sqrt{3}}$ , the side length of the equilateral triangle inscribed within $S$ must be $\frac{10\sqrt{3}}{\sqrt{67}}$ (as $S$ is simply as scaled version of $XYZ$ , and thus their corresponding inscribed equilateral triangles must be scaled by the same factor). Then the area of the equilateral triangle inscribed within $S$ is $\frac{75\sqrt{3}}{67}$ , implying that the answer is $\boxed{145}$ .

-Solution by TheBoomBox77

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2017 AIME I Problems/Problem 15

Contents

Problem 15

Solution 1

Solution 2 (No Coordinates)

Solution 3 (A little Trig)

See Also