Angle bisector length

Geometry Level 3

In triangle A B C ABC , if A B = 10 AB=10 , A C = 16 AC=16 , C D = 8 CD=8 , and A D AD bisects angle B A C BAC , find the length of A D AD .

Image: courtesy of Wikipedia.


The answer is 10.954.

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4 solutions

Rohit Sachdeva
Oct 5, 2014

I did a bit of coordinate geometry.

By angle bisector theorem, we get BD=5

Let C(0,0)

D(8,0)

and B(13,0)

Let A(x,y)

Then AC=16 gives x²+y²=256

AB=10 gives (x-13)²+y²=100

Subtracting gives x=12.5 and y²=99.75

AD=√(x-8)²+y² = √120 ≈ 10.954

Michael Mendrin
Jun 23, 2014

See diagram, created by folding the triangle at line A D AD

Bisector Bisector For the unknowns x , y , z x, y, z , we have the following proportional equations

10 z = 16 x + y + z \dfrac { 10 }{ z } =\dfrac { 16 }{ x+y+z }

10 2 z 2 z = 8 2 x 2 x + y + z \dfrac { \sqrt { { 10 }^{ 2 }-{ z }^{ 2 } } }{ z } =\dfrac { \sqrt { { 8 }^{ 2 }-{ x }^{ 2 } } }{ x+y+z }

10 2 z 2 y = 8 2 x 2 x \dfrac { \sqrt { { 10 }^{ 2 }-{ z }^{ 2 } } }{ y } =\dfrac { \sqrt { { 8 }^{ 2 }-{ x }^{ 2 } } }{ x }

Solve to get y + z = 2 30 y+z=2\sqrt { 30 } , which is the exact answer.

i did it by using stewart's theorem and relation of angle bisectors with the sides of a triangle

akash deep - 6 years, 10 months ago

The answer is 10.954 like it's show after congratulations menu!?:). Sorry! I have mistake. I think that the correct answer is 2sqrt{30} too. It's enough to find BD=5 from the properties of proportion of the angle bisector. Then sqr(AD) = AC.AB - DC.BD. The last condition is easy follow from the Stewart's theorem or from the properties of the chords in a circle which is circumscribes around the triangle ABC.

Boryana Atanasova - 6 years, 10 months ago

solved it using cosine rule and sine rule(actually angle bisector theorem)!

Kartik Sharma - 6 years, 9 months ago

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@Kartik Sharma Can you show me how you solve it using the cosine rule, sine and the angle bisctor theorm

Mardokay Mosazghi - 6 years, 9 months ago

@Kartik Sharma can you please show how?

Anik Mandal - 5 years, 9 months ago

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Well, that's nothing new. It was a year ago when I solved it. Back then, I didn't know about Stewart's Theorem theorem and Angle Bisector Theorem(well, I did know this but didn't use it, hence in brackets). Both of these theorems are just simple facts we can get very easily from cosine and sine rule. So, I used these theorems(as others have done) without knowing of them.

Kartik Sharma - 5 years, 9 months ago
Curtis Clement
Sep 26, 2015

The angle bisector theorem states that: A B A C = B D C D \frac{AB}{AC} = \frac{BD}{CD} Let BD = x: 10 16 = 5 8 = x 8 x = 5 \frac{10}{16} = \frac{5}{8} = \frac{x}{8} \Rightarrow\ x = 5 Now if we let b and c be the sides adjacent to the bisected and a be the opposite side then the length of AD = d is given by d 2 = b c ( b + c ) 2 ( ( b + c ) 2 a 2 ) ( 1 ) \ d^2 = \frac{bc}{(b+c)^2} ( (b+c)^2 -a^2 ) \ ~~ \ (1) ( A D ) 2 = 10 × 16 2 6 2 ( 2 6 2 1 3 2 ) = 120 \ (AD)^2 = \frac{10 \times\ 16}{26^{2}} (26^2 -13^2) = 120 A D = 2 30 10.95 \therefore\ AD = 2 \sqrt{30} \approx\ 10.95 Note that (1) is not the result of previous steps, rather it is a theorem.

Ajit Athle
May 5, 2015

In any triangle, x²= bc((b+c)²-a²)/(b+c)² where x = length of angle bisector from A and a, b, c have their usual meanings. https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Length of Angle_Bisector We've a = 13, b=16 & c=10. On substitution, we obtain, x=AD=2√30 ~= 10.9545

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