The following figure shows a cyclic quadrilateral whose diagonals and form an acute angle of . Points and are the feet of the perpendicular lines from vertex to line segments and respectively. is a diameter of the circumscribed circle.
If is a line segment of length , perpendicular to , calculate the area of the quadrilateral .
If the area in question is given by the expression , where , , and are natural numbers and is the golden ratio , find .
Challenging restriction (optional): No coordinate geometry, no trigonometry. Just plain Euclidean Geometry.
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
It’s not going to be short, so here is an outline of the steps that follow:
Step 1 : A , B , M and N are homocyclic points.
Step 2 : N is the center of the circumscribed circle of A B C D .
Step 3 : ∠ C B D = 1 8 ∘ (the orange one), hence M N and C D can be considered as sides of inscribed regular decagons.
Step 4 : Relate the side of a regular decagon with its circumradius.
Step 5 : Calculate the lengths of the radii of the two circles.
Step 6 : Calculate the area of A B C D as the sum of the areas of △ A B D and △ B C D .
Step 1 :
∠ B M A = 9 0 ∘ = ∠ B N A , hence A , B , M and N are homocyclic points (circle c 1 ) and A B is a diameter of this circle.
Step 2 :
B D is a diameter of the circumscribed circle of A B C D (circle c 2 ), hence ∠ B A D = ∠ B C D = 9 0 ∘ .
θ 1 ∘ = θ 2 ∘ (inscribed angles subtended by the same arc A D ⌢ ).
θ 2 ∘ = θ 3 ∘ (similar reason).
Hence, θ 1 ∘ = θ 3 ∘ .
Consequently, ∠ M C E = 9 0 ∘ − θ 1 ∘ = 9 0 ∘ − θ 3 ∘ = ∠ C M E . Since ∠ M C E and ∠ C M E are the acute angles of the right-angled △ E M C , they both equal to 4 5 ∘ . Therefore, θ 2 ∘ = θ 1 ∘ = 9 0 ∘ − ω 1 ∘ = 9 0 ∘ − 4 5 ∘ = 4 5 ∘ and so the right-angled △ A B D is an isosceles triangle. Since A N is a height of △ A B D , it is the perpendicular bisector of B D and N is the midpoint of diameter B D , thus it is the center of the circle c 2 .
Step 3 :
On △ F C D : ∠ D + ∠ C + ∠ F = 1 8 0 ∘ ⇒ ∠ D + 4 5 ∘ + 6 3 ∘ = 1 8 0 ∘ ⇒ ∠ D = 7 2 ∘
On △ B C D : ∠ B + ∠ C + ∠ D = 1 8 0 ∘ ⇒ ∠ B + 9 0 ∘ + 7 2 ∘ = 1 8 0 ∘ ⇒ ∠ B = 1 8 ∘
Since ∠ C B D = 1 8 ∘ , the chords M N and C D can be considered as sides of inscribed regular decagons in circles c 1 an c 2 respectively.
Step 4 :
Step 5 :
Let R 1 , R 2 be the radii of circles c 1 and c 2 respectively. Label s 1 = M N = 2 and s 2 = C D .
By the theorem of step 4, we have R 1 = s 1 ⋅ φ ⇒ R 1 = φ ⋅ 2 . ( 1 )
By Pythagoras’ theorem on △ A B N , A B 2 = N A 2 + N B 2 ⇒ ( 2 R 1 ) 2 = 2 R 2 2 ⇒ R 2 = R 1 ⋅ 2 ⇒ ( 1 ) R 2 = φ ⋅ 2 2 ⇒ R 2 = 2 φ .
Step 6 :
By similarity of regular decagons s 1 s 2 = R 1 R 2 ⇒ s 2 = s 1 ⋅ R 1 R 2 ⇒ s 2 = 2 ⋅ 2 ⇒ s 2 = 2 .
By Pythagoras’ theorem on △ B C D ,
B D 2 = B C 2 + C D 2 ⇒ B C 2 = B D 2 − C D 2 ⇒ B C 2 = ( 2 R 2 ) 2 − 2 2 = ( 4 φ ) 2 − 4 = 1 6 φ 2 − 4 .
Since φ 2 = φ + 1 , we get B C 2 = 1 6 ( φ + 1 ) − 4 = 1 6 φ + 1 2 ⇒ B C = 2 4 φ + 3 .
Now we have
area of △ A B C D = area of △ A B D + area of △ B C D = 2 1 A B ⋅ A D + 2 1 B C ⋅ C D = 2 1 ( 2 R 1 ) 2 + 2 1 B C ⋅ 2 = 2 1 ⋅ 8 φ 2 + 2 1 ⋅ 2 4 φ + 3 ⋅ 2 = 4 ( φ + 1 ) + 2 4 φ + 3 = 4 φ + 4 + 2 4 φ + 3 = ( 4 φ + 3 ) + 2 4 φ + 3 + 1 = ( 4 φ + 3 + 1 ) 2 .
For the answer, a = 4 , b = 3 , c = 1 , thus a + b + c = 8 .