Inscribed and Tangent

Geometry Level pending

Two congruent isosceles triangles A B C ABC and B C D BCD share the side B C BC , A B = B C = C D AB=BC=CD , and their incircles are tangent to each other. Find the angle A B C ABC in degrees.


The answer is 101.736.

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1 solution

Marta Reece
Mar 7, 2017

Let’s designate B C G = α \angle BCG=\alpha . Radius of the inscribed circle in triangle B C D BCD is its area divided by a semi-perimeter. R = s i n ( α ) c o s ( α ) 1 + s i n ( α ) R=\frac{sin(\alpha)cos(\alpha)}{1+sin(\alpha)} .

Also R + x = 1 2 R+x=\frac{1}{2} and R x = t a n ( α \frac{R}{x}=tan(\alpha ). So we have R t a n ( α ) + R = 1 2 \frac{R}{tan(\alpha)}+R=\frac{1}{2} . This will give us R = s i n ( α ) 2 ( s i n ( α ) + c o s ( α ) ) R=\frac{sin(\alpha)}{2(sin(\alpha)+cos(\alpha))}

Setting the two expressions for R R equal to each other, we get c o s ( α ) 1 + s i n ( α ) = 1 2 ( s i n ( α ) + c o s ( α ) ) \frac{cos(\alpha)}{1+sin(\alpha)}=\frac{1}{2(sin(\alpha)+cos(\alpha))} .

Introducing y = s i n ( α ) y=sin(\alpha) we can write this equation as 1 y 2 1 + y = 1 2 ( y + 1 y 2 ) \frac{\sqrt{1-y^2}}{1+y}=\frac{1}{2(y+\sqrt{1-y^2})} .

The applicable solution is y = 0.77569 y=0.77569 , giving us α = 50.86 8 \alpha=50.868^\circ

The A B C = B C D = 2 × α = 101.73 6 \angle ABC=\angle BCD=2\times\alpha=101.736^\circ .

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