2008 AMC 12A Problem 24

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24.

Triangle ABCABC has C=60\angle C = 60^\circ and BC=4.BC = 4. Point DD is the midpoint of BC.BC. What is the largest possible value of tan(BAD)?\tan(\angle BAD)?

36\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{6}

33\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{3}

322\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{2\sqrt{2}}

3423\dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{4\sqrt{2} - 3}

11

Answer: D
Concepts:coordinate geometrytrigonometric identityoptimization
Difficulty rating: 2380
Solution:

Place C=(0,0),C = (0, 0), B=(2,23)B = (2, 2\sqrt{3}) so that C=60\angle C = 60^\circ and BC=4,BC = 4, and let A=(x,0)A = (x, 0) with x>0.x \gt 0. Then D=(1,3)D = (1, \sqrt{3}) is the midpoint of BC.BC.

The vectors AB=(2x,23)\overrightarrow{AB} = (2-x, 2\sqrt{3}) and AD=(1x,3)\overrightarrow{AD} = (1-x, \sqrt{3}) have cross-product magnitude 3x\sqrt{3}\,x and dot product x23x+8,x^2 - 3x + 8, which is always positive. Hence tan(BAD)=3xx23x+8. \tan(\angle BAD) = \dfrac{\sqrt{3}\,x}{x^2 - 3x + 8}.

The derivative has the sign of 8x2,8-x^2, so the unique maximum occurs at x=22.x = 2\sqrt{2}. Substituting, tan(BAD)=261662=6832=3423. \begin{aligned} \tan(\angle BAD) &= \dfrac{2\sqrt{6}}{16 - 6\sqrt{2}} \\ &= \dfrac{\sqrt{6}}{8 - 3\sqrt{2}} \\ &= \dfrac{\sqrt{3}}{4\sqrt{2} - 3}. \end{aligned}

Thus, D is the correct answer.

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