2018 AIME II Problems/Problem 12

Problem

Let $ABCD$ be a convex quadrilateral with $AB = CD = 10$ , $BC = 14$ , and $AD = 2\sqrt{65}$ . Assume that the diagonals of $ABCD$ intersect at point $P$ , and that the sum of the areas of triangles $APB$ and $CPD$ equals the sum of the areas of triangles $BPC$ and $APD$ . Find the area of quadrilateral $ABCD$ .

Solution

For reference, $2\sqrt{65} \approx 16$ , so $\overline{AD}$ is the longest of the four sides of $ABCD$ . Let $h_1$ be the length of the altitude from $B$ to $\overline{AC}$ , and let $h_2$ be the length of the altitude from $D$ to $\overline{AC}$ . Then, the triangle area equation becomes

$\frac{h_1}{2}AP + \frac{h_2}{2}CP = \frac{h_1}{2}CP + \frac{h_2}{2}AP \rightarrow \left(h_1 - h_2\right)AP = \left(h_1 - h_2\right)CP \rightarrow AP = CP$ .

What an important finding! Note that the opposite sides $\overline{AB}$ and $\overline{CD}$ have equal length, and note that diagonal $\overline{DB}$ bisects diagonal $\overline{AC}$ . This is very similar to what happens if $ABCD$ were a parallelogram with $AB = CD = 10$ , so let's extedn $\overline{DB}$ to point $E$ , such that $AECD$ is a parallelogram. In other words, $AE = CD = 10$ and $EC = DA = 2\sqrt{65}$ . Now, let's examine $\triangle ABE$ . Since $AB = AE = 10$ , the triangle is isosceles, and $\angle ABE \cong \angle AEB$ . Note that in parallelogram $AECD$ , $\angle AED$ and $\angle CDE$ , so $\angle ABE \cong \angle CDE$ and thus $\text{m}\angle ABD = 180^\circ - \text{m}\angle CDB$ . Define $\alpha := \text{m}\angle CDB$ , so $180^\circ - \alpha = \text{m}\angle ABD$ . We use the Law of Cosines on $\triangle DAB$ and $\triangle CAB$ :

$\left(2\sqrt{65}\right)^2 = 10^2 + BD^2 - 20BD\cos\left(180^\circ - \alpha\right) = 100 + BD^2 + 20BD\cos\alpha,$

$14^2 = 10^2 + BD^2 - 20BD\cos\alpha.$

Subtracting the second equation from the first yields

$260 - 196 = 40BD\cos\alpha \rightarrow BD\cos\alpha = \frac{8}{5}.$

This means that dropping an altitude from $B$ to some foot $Q$ on $\overline{CD}$ gives $DQ = \frac{8}{5}$ and therefore $CQ = \frac{42}{5}$ . Seeing that $CQ = \frac{3}{5}\cdot BC$ , we conclude that $\triangle QCB$ is a 3-4-5 right triangle, so $BQ = \frac{56}{5}$ . Then, the area of $\triangle BCD$ is $\frac{1}{2}\cdot 10 \cdot \frac{56}{5} = 56$ . Since $AP = CP$ , points $A$ and $C$ are equidistant from $\overline{BD}$ , so $\left[\triangle ABD\right] = \left[\triangle CBD\right] = 56$ and hence $\left[ABCD\right] = 56 + 56 = \boxed{112}$ . -kgator

2018 AIME II (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 11	Followed by Problem 13
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2018 AIME II Problems/Problem 12

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