2009 AIME II Problem 15
Below is the professionally curated solution for Problem 15 of the 2009 AIME II, from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2009 AIME II solutions, or check the answer key.
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Difficulty rating: 3370
15.
Let be a diameter of a circle with diameter Let and be points on one of the semicircular arcs determined by such that is the midpoint of the semicircle and Point lies on the other semicircular arc. Let be the length of the line segment whose endpoints are the intersections of diameter with the chords and The largest possible value of can be written in the form where and are positive integers and is not divisible by the square of any prime. Find
Solution:
Let chords and meet at and and set Since (angle in a semicircle) and we get also Because lies on both and the ratio equals the ratio of the distances from and to line i.e. In cyclic quadrilateral the angles and are supplementary, so their sines are equal and
Since these give and so
As ranges over the far semicircle, takes every positive value. By AM-GM, with equality at Hence the largest value of is since Then
Problem 15 in Other Years
1997 AIME · 1998 AIME · 1999 AIME · 2000 AIME I · 2000 AIME II · 2001 AIME I · 2001 AIME II · 2002 AIME I · 2002 AIME II · 2003 AIME I · 2003 AIME II · 2004 AIME I · 2004 AIME II · 2005 AIME I · 2005 AIME II · 2006 AIME I · 2006 AIME II · 2007 AIME I · 2007 AIME II · 2008 AIME I · 2008 AIME II · 2009 AIME I · 2010 AIME I · 2010 AIME II · 2011 AIME I · 2011 AIME II · 2012 AIME I · 2012 AIME II · 2013 AIME I · 2013 AIME II · 2014 AIME I · 2014 AIME II · 2015 AIME I · 2015 AIME II · 2016 AIME I · 2016 AIME II · 2017 AIME I · 2017 AIME II · 2018 AIME I · 2018 AIME II · 2019 AIME I · 2019 AIME II · 2020 AIME I · 2020 AIME II · 2021 AIME I · 2021 AIME II · 2022 AIME I · 2022 AIME II · 2023 AIME I · 2023 AIME II · 2024 AIME I · 2024 AIME II · 2025 AIME I · 2025 AIME II · 2026 AIME I · 2026 AIME II