2004 AIME I Problem 9
Attempt Problem 9 of the 2004 AIME I below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2004 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.
All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
9.
Let be a triangle with sides and and be a -by- rectangle. A segment is drawn to divide triangle into a triangle and a trapezoid and another segment is drawn to divide rectangle into a triangle and a trapezoid such that is similar to and is similar to The minimum value of the area of can be written in the form where and are relatively prime positive integers. Find
Answer: 35
Small Hint:
Cutting the rectangle into a triangle and a trapezoid requires the segment to join a vertex to a nonadjacent side, so is a right triangle and
Big Hint:
Matching the acute angles of and forces the cut in parallel to the side of length the two possible rectangle cuts give base ratios and
Solution:
A segment cuts the rectangle into a triangle and a trapezoid only if it runs from a vertex to a point on a nonadjacent side, so is a right triangle whose legs lie along two sides of the rectangle, one leg being a full side ( or ). Since the cut in the -- right triangle must also produce a right triangle, so it is parallel to a leg, and then Hence is a -- triangle too: its legs are and (full side ) or and (full side ); the other orientations need legs or which do not fit.
In both cases the trapezoid has two right angles and an acute angle between the cut and its longer base with tangent In triangle a cut parallel to the leg of length gives an acute angle with tangent matching, while a cut parallel to the leg of length gives tangent which cannot match. So the cut is parallel to the side of length and the parallel bases of are the cut segment and the side of length
Similarity of the trapezoids forces to equal the ratio of the bases of which is in the first case and in the second. Then giving or The minimum is so
Problem 9 in Other Years
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