Does this sort of triangle look familiar to you?

Geometry Level 3

The area of Δ A B C \Delta ABC is Δ = 6 unit 2 \varDelta = 6 \text{ unit}^2 and the product of the length of its sides a , b , c a,b,c is a b c = 60 abc = 60 . If the radius of the incircle of this triangle is 1, then find the value of

1 a + 1 b + 1 c . \dfrac 1a + \dfrac 1b + \dfrac 1c.

Give your answer to 3 decimal places.


The answer is 0.783.

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.

1 solution

Tapas Mazumdar
Jan 5, 2017

For any triangle

Radius of incircle ( r ) = Δ s \left( r \right) = \dfrac{\varDelta}{s}

where s s is the semi-perimeter of Δ A B C \Delta ABC , i.e., s = a + b + c 2 s = \dfrac{a+b+c}{2} .

So

6 s = 1 s = 6 \begin{aligned} & \dfrac 6s = 1 \\ \implies & s = 6 \end{aligned}

Using heron's formula

Δ = s ( s a ) ( s b ) ( s c ) 6 = 6 ( 6 a ) ( 6 b ) ( 6 c ) 36 = 6 ( 6 a ) ( 6 b ) ( 6 c ) 6 = 216 36 ( a + b + c ) + 6 ( a b + b c + c a ) a b c 6 = 216 36 ( 12 ) + 6 ( a b + b c + c a ) 60 a + b + c = 2 s = 12 a b + b c + c a = 47 \begin{aligned} & \varDelta = \sqrt{s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)} \\ \implies & 6 = \sqrt{6(6-a)(6-b)(6-c)} \\ \implies & 36 = 6(6-a)(6-b)(6-c) \\ \implies & 6 = 216 - 36(a+b+c) + 6(ab+bc+ca) - abc \\ \implies & 6 = 216 - 36(12) + 6(ab+bc+ca) - 60 \qquad \qquad \qquad \qquad \small \color{#3D99F6}{\because a+b+c = 2s = 12} \\ \implies & ab+bc+ca = 47 \end{aligned}

Now

1 a + 1 b + 1 c = a b + b c + c a a b c = 47 60 0.783 \dfrac 1a + \dfrac 1b + \dfrac 1c = \dfrac{ab+bc+ca}{abc} = \dfrac{47}{60} \approx \boxed{0.783}


Extra bit:

An interesting thing to note here is that the only unordered triplet for positive integral values of a , b a,b and c c is ( a , b , c ) = ( 3 , 4 , 5 ) (a,b,c)=(3,4,5) which is a very popular Pythagorean triplet! (Thus, the title is justified.)

Well the fun fact is that i guessed it was a 3,4,5 triangle after seeing the title

Ayush G Rai - 4 years, 5 months ago

Log in to reply

Haha. Yes. The title itself increases the chances of you finding the answer by manifolds.

Tapas Mazumdar - 4 years, 5 months ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...