Find the ratio between these areas.

Geometry Level 3

If the ratio between the area of a square inscribed in a circle, and an equilateral triangle circumscribed about the same circle as shown in the figure below can be expressed as a b c \dfrac{a \sqrt{b}}{c} , where a , c a,c are coprime positive integers and b b is square-free, then find the value of a + b + c a + b + c .


The answer is 14.

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1 solution

Chew-Seong Cheong
Nov 10, 2018

Let the center of the circle be O O and its radius r r . Then the diagonal of the square is 2 r 2r and its side length is 2 r \sqrt 2 r . The area of the square A = ( 2 r ) 2 = 2 r 2 A_\square = (\sqrt 2 r)^2 = 2 r^2 .

Note that the center of the circle is also the centroid of the equilateral triangle. Then we have O D : O B = 1 : 2 OD:OB = 1:2 , implying that the height of the triangle h = B D = 3 r h=BD = 3r and the side length of the triangle a = 2 h tan 3 0 = 6 r 3 = 2 3 r a = 2h \tan 30^\circ = \dfrac {6r}{\sqrt 3} = 2\sqrt 3 r and the area of the triangle A = a h 2 = 3 3 r 2 A_\triangle = \dfrac {ah}2 = 3 \sqrt 3 r^2 .

Therefore, the ratio A A = 2 r 2 3 3 r 2 = 2 3 3 = 2 3 9 \dfrac {A_\square}{A_\triangle} = \dfrac {2r^2}{3\sqrt 3 r^2} = \dfrac 2{3\sqrt 3} = \dfrac {2\sqrt 3}9 . Then a + b + c = 2 + 3 + 9 = 14 a+b+c = 2+3+9 = \boxed{14} .

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