Embiggen this Circle

Geometry Level pending

A B C D ABCD is a rectangle. A B = w AB = w and A D = 1 AD = 1 . E E and F F are the midpoints of C B CB and A B AB , respectively.

Find the value of w w which maximizes the ratio of the area of the circle to the area of the rectangle.

If this value can be expressed as a + b c \sqrt \dfrac{-a+\sqrt b}{c} , where b b is square-free and a a and d d are positive integers, and submit a + b + c a+b+c .


The answer is 506.

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2 solutions

Pi Han Goh
Mar 1, 2021

Let us plot this into a Cartesian plane, with A ( 0 , 0 ) , B ( w , 0 ) , C ( w , 1 ) , D ( 1 , 0 ) , E ( w , 1 2 ) , F ( w 2 , 0 ) A(0,0), B(w,0), C(w,1), D(1,0), E(w, \tfrac12), F(\tfrac w2, 0) .

The coordinate of the G G can be found by finding the intersection point between the two straights A E AE and D F DF :

{ Straight line A E : y = 1 2 x w = x 2 w Straight line D G : x w / 2 + y 1 = 1 G = ( 2 w 5 , 1 5 ) \begin{cases} \text{Straight line }AE: & \quad y = \frac12 \cdot \frac xw = \frac x{2w} \\ \text{Straight line }DG: & \quad \frac x{w/2} + \frac y1 = 1 \end{cases} \quad \Rightarrow \quad G = \left( \frac {2w}5, \frac15 \right)

Let r r denote the radius of the circle, then r = A s r = \dfrac{ \mathcal A}{s} , where A \mathcal A and s s denotes the area and semiperimeter of the triangle D E G DEG , respectively.

A \mathcal A can be computed by finding the complementary area. That is, ( Area of rectangle A B C D ) A = ( Area of triangle D A F ) + ( Area of triangle A B F ) + ( Area of triangle D C E ) ( Area of triangle G A F ) (\text{Area of rectangle } ABCD) - \mathcal A = (\text{Area of triangle } DAF) + (\text{Area of triangle } ABF) + (\text{Area of triangle } DCE) - (\text{Area of triangle } GAF)

In the right-hand-side of the equation above, the first three areas are easy to compute because they are all right-angle triangles. The last area can be computed using shoelace formula .

Simplify all these, we get A = 3 w 10 (1) \mathcal A = \dfrac{3w}{10} \tag1

By Pythagorean theorem , we can find all the side lengths of the triangle D E G DEG . Thus, we can obtain s = D E + E G + G D 2 = 1 5 ( 4 + w 2 + 2 1 + 4 w 2 ) (2) s = \dfrac{DE + EG + GD}2 = \dfrac15\left (\sqrt{4 + w^2 } + 2 \sqrt{1+4w^2} \right ) \tag2

Let P P denote the ratio of the area of the circle to the area of the triangle, so P = π r 2 1 w = 9 4 w ( 4 + w 2 + 2 1 + 4 w 2 ) 2 P = \dfrac{\pi r^2}{1\cdot w} = \dfrac94 \cdot \dfrac w{\left(\sqrt{4 + w^2 } + 2 \sqrt{1+4w^2} \right)^2 }

Maximizing P P is equivalent to minimizing Q : = ( 4 + w 2 + 2 1 + 4 w 2 ) 2 w = 17 w + 4 w 2 + 4 4 w 2 + 1 w + 8 w Q := \dfrac {\left(\sqrt{4 + w^2 } + 2 \sqrt{1+4w^2} \right)^2 } w = 17w + \dfrac{4\sqrt{w^2 + 4} \cdot \sqrt{4w^2 + 1}}w + \dfrac8w

At its critical point(s), d Q d w = 0 \dfrac{dQ}{dw} = 0 . Apply quotient rule and simplify all the tedious algebra, we get w = 481 17 8 w = \sqrt{ \dfrac{\sqrt{481} - 17}8 } .

Obviously Q Q has no maximum value because we can set w w to be unboundedly large, so the critical point above must be a minimum value.

Hence, the ratio in question is maximized when w = 481 17 8 w = \sqrt{ \dfrac{\sqrt{481} - 17}8 } . The answer is 481 + 17 + 8 = 506 . 481 + 17 + 8 = \boxed{506} .

Fletcher Mattox
Feb 24, 2021

Let's use sympy to find the solution of w = 17 + 481 8 17 + 481 + 8 = 506 w = \sqrt \dfrac{-17 + \sqrt {481}}{8} \implies 17 + 481 + 8 = \boxed{ 506}

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# https://www.geogebra.org/classic/crs42wcz
# https://brilliant.org/problems/embiggen-this-circle/

from sympy import *

width = symbols('width')
height = 1

A = Point(0, 0)
B = Point(width, 0)
C = Point(width, height)
D = Point(0, height)
F = Point(width/2, 0)           # midpoint AB
E = Point(width, height/2)      # midpoint BC
ae = Line(A, E)
df = Line(D, F)
G = ae.intersection(df)[0]
radius = Triangle(G, E, D).inradius

# we wish to maximize the ratio of the areas
ratio = radius*radius / (width*height)

# differentiate w.r.t width
dif = diff(ratio, width)

# check the 2nd derivative
dif2 = diff(dif, width)

# solve for extrema
sol = solve(dif, width)
for i in sol:
    if i > 0:
        print("width =", i)
        print("2nd derivative < 0?", dif2.subs(width, i) < 0)

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# width = sqrt(-17/8 + sqrt(481)/8)
# 2nd derivative < 0? True

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