The figure shows a right angle at F inside a regular pentagon. Which triangle has a greater area?
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Here is a geometric solution.
Draw the line through D parallel to side A B . Let this line intersect line A E at H . It is easy to compute that ∠ H A F = ∠ D A F = 1 8 ∘ and ∠ H D F = ∠ A D F = 3 6 ∘ , so F is the incenter of triangle A D H . This means F is equidistant to lines A H and D H .
In triangles A E F and D F G , bases A E and F G have the same length. ( A F G B is a rectangle, so F G = A B = A E .) And from our observation above, the height from F to A E is equal to the height from D to F G . Therefore, triangles A E F and D F G have the same area.
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Since no one provides a solution, I am submitting one. I was thinking of submitting a simple graphical solution but I couldn't find one.
Let the side length of the pentagon be 1 and D F = D G = a . Then the ratio of areas of the two triangle is given by:
A r e d A b l u e = 2 1 ⋅ a ⋅ a sin 1 0 8 ∘ 2 1 ⋅ ( 1 − a ) sin 1 0 8 ∘ = a 2 1 − a
To find a , we note that △ D F G and △ D E H are similar. Therefore 1 a = E H F G = 1 2 cos 3 6 ∘ = φ 1 , where φ = 2 1 + 5 is the golden ratio . Then we have:
A r e d A b l u e = a 2 1 − a = φ 2 ( 1 − φ 1 ) = φ 2 − φ = φ + 1 − φ = 1 ⟹ A b l u e = A r e d
Ans: Neither