Geometry

Geometry Level 3

In the isosceles triangle ABC, A = 2 0 \angle A = 20^\circ , A D = B C = C E AD=BC=CE . Find the measure of angle B D E BDE in degrees.


The answer is 40.

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1 solution

Marta Reece
Apr 27, 2017

Since we are only interested in angles, we can arbitrarily set the length of the red segments to 1 1 .

In parallelogram F E G C FEGC this will give us G C = F E = 1 2 GC=FE=\frac{1}{2} .

From A B G \triangle ABG the full side A B = 1 2 sin 1 0 = 2.879 AB=\frac{1}{2\sin10^\circ}=2.879 and the section of it in the middle D H = 2.879 2 = 0.879 DH=2.879-2=0.879

Projection of this section into the vertical D F = 0.879 × cos 1 0 = 0.866 DF=0.879\times\cos10^\circ=0.866

From right D F E \triangle DFE the F D E = arctan E F D F = 3 0 \angle FDE=\arctan\frac{EF}{DF}=30^\circ

To get desired angle, we add the F D H = 1 0 \angle FDH=10^\circ and get 3 0 + 1 0 = 4 0 . 30^\circ+10^\circ=\boxed{40^\circ}.

The really interesting result is obtained when we calculate the length of D E = 0.866 cos 3 0 = 1 DE=\frac{0.866}{\cos30^\circ}=1 .

A line made of four equal segments attached by flexible joints will fold perfectly into a narrow isosceles triangle with the top angle of 2 0 20^\circ .

You haven't proved that FEGC is a parallelogram. Considering that AG is the perpendicular bisector onto BC, you should at least prove that the quadrilateral formed by FEGC is a parallelogram.

Jay Mangal - 3 years ago

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