Complex ellipse

Geometry Level 4

A triangle has its vertices at A ( 0 , 20 ) A (0,20) , B ( 10 , 0 ) B (-10,0) , and C ( 20 , 0 ) C (20,0) , as shown in the figure above. An ellipse can be inscribed in A B C \triangle ABC such that it is tangent at the three midpoints of the sides.

If F 1 F_1 and F 2 F_2 are the ellipse foci, then F 1 F 2 2 = A B C \left| F_1F_2 \right|^2 = \dfrac{A \sqrt B}C , where A A and C C are positive coprime integers and B B is square-free. Find A + B + C A+B+C .


The answer is 422.

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2 solutions

Yuriy Kazakov
Jul 1, 2020

Marden's theorem

f ( z ) = ( z z A ) ( z z B ) ( z z C ) f(z)=(z-z_A)(z-z_B)(z-z_C)

f ( z ) = ( ( z 20 0 i ) ( z + 10 + 0 i ) ( z 20 i ) ) = 0 f'(z)=((z-20-0i)(z+10+0i)(z-20i))'=0

3 z 2 ( 20 + 40 i ) z ( 200 200 i ) = 0 3 z^2 - (20 + 40 i) z - (200 - 200 i) = 0

F 1 = 10 3 ( ( 1 + 2 i ) + 3 2 i ) F_1 = \frac{10}{3} ((1 + 2 i) +\sqrt {3 - 2 i})

F 2 = 10 3 ( ( 1 2 i ) + 3 2 i F_2 = -\frac{10}{3} ((-1 - 2 i) + \sqrt{3 - 2 i}

10 3 ( ( 1 + 2 i ) + 3 2 i ) + 10 3 ( ( 1 2 i ) + 3 2 i ) 2 = 400 13 9 \left| \frac{10}{3} ((1 + 2 i) + \sqrt {3 - 2 i})+\frac{10}{3} ((-1 -2 i) + \sqrt {3 - 2 i}\right)|^2 = \frac{400 \sqrt {13}}{9}

Such an ellipse is called Steiner inellipse and its semi-major and semi-minor axes are given by:

a s , b s = 1 6 a 2 + b 2 + c 2 ± 2 Z a_s, b_s = \frac 16 \sqrt{a^2+b^2+c^2 \pm 2Z}

where a a , b b , and c c are the side lengths of the triangle and Z = a 2 + b 2 + c 2 a 2 b 2 b 2 c 2 c 2 a 2 Z = \sqrt{a^2+b^2+c^2 - a^2b^2-b^2c^2 - c^2a^2} .

From A ( 0 , 20 ) A (0,20) , B (-10,0)), and C ( 20 , 0 ) C (20,0) , we have a 2 = 900 a^2 = 900 , b 2 = 800 b^2 = 800 , c 2 = 500 c^2 = 500 , Z = 100 13 Z = 100\sqrt{13} , and a 2 , b s = 2200 ± 200 13 6 a_2, b_s = \dfrac {\sqrt{2200 \pm 200\sqrt{13}}}6 . Then we have:

F 1 F 2 = 2 a s 2 b s 2 F 1 F 2 2 = 4 ( a s 2 b s 2 ) = 4 × 2200 + 200 13 2200 + 200 13 36 = 400 13 9 \begin{aligned} \left| F_1F_2 \right| & = 2 \sqrt{a_s^2 - b_s^2} \\ \left| F_1F_2 \right|^2 & = 4 (a_s^2 - b_s^2) \\ & = 4 \times \frac {2200+200\sqrt{13} - 2200 + 200\sqrt{13}}{36} \\ & = \frac {400\sqrt{13}}9 \end{aligned}

Therefore, A + B + C = 400 + 13 + 9 = 422 A+B+C = 400+13+9 = \boxed{422} .

Can you derive the formulae you mentioned?

Digvijay Singh - 11 months, 2 weeks ago

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I would not like to. If you want to try, I would suggest to consider the sum of distances of the three midpoints from the two foci are the same, which is 2 a 2a , where a a is the semi-major axis. Let the coordinates of the two foci be x 1 . y 1 x_1.y_1 and x 2 , y 2 x_2,y_2 . Then we will have three equations for four unknowns but we have the additional fact that the center of the ellipse is the midpoint between the two foci.

Chew-Seong Cheong - 11 months, 2 weeks ago

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