Levitating Pentagon

Geometry Level pending

In the Cartesian plane, the regular pentagon is formed by the vertical axis and two graphs y = x 2 y = x^2 and y = 2 x 2 y= 2x^2 , where two pairs of common vertices are symmetric about the vertical axis.

If the area of the pentagon can be expressed as A B + C D A\sqrt{B + C\sqrt{D}} where A A , B B , C C , and D D are positive integers and D D is square-free, input A + B + C + D A + B + C + D as your answer.


The answer is 133.

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2 solutions

Chew-Seong Cheong
Jan 31, 2021

Note that the curve y = x 2 y=x^2 is red and y = 2 x 2 y=2x^2 is blue. Let A = ( u , 2 u 2 ) A=(u, 2u^2) and B = ( v , v 2 ) B=(v, v^2) . Then the side length of the regular pentagon is 2 u 2u . Then we have:

v = u + 2 u sin 1 8 = u + 2 u ( 5 1 4 ) = ( 1 + 5 2 ) u = φ u v =u+2u \sin 18^\circ = u + 2u \left(\frac {\sqrt 5-1}4\right) = \blue{\left(\frac {1+\sqrt 5}2\right)} u = \blue \varphi u

where φ \varphi denotes the golden ratio . And:

v 2 = 2 u 2 + 2 u cos 1 8 = 2 u 2 + 2 u 5 + 5 8 = 2 u 2 + u 5 φ v^2 = 2u^2 + 2u \cos 18^\circ = 2u^2 + 2u \sqrt{\frac {5+\sqrt 5}8} = 2u^2 + u \sqrt{\sqrt 5 \varphi}

Therefore,

φ 2 u 2 = 2 u 2 + u 5 φ ( φ 2 2 ) u = 5 φ ( φ + 1 2 ) 2 u 2 = 5 φ Note that φ 1 = 1 φ u 2 φ 2 = 5 φ u 2 = 5 φ 3 \begin{aligned} \varphi^2 u^2 & = 2u^2 + u \sqrt{\sqrt 5 \varphi} \\ (\varphi^2 - 2)u & = \sqrt{\sqrt 5 \varphi} \\ (\varphi + 1 -2)^2u^2 & = \sqrt 5 \varphi & \small \blue{\text{Note that }\varphi - 1 = \frac 1\varphi} \\ \frac {u^2}{\varphi^2} & = \sqrt 5 \varphi \\ \implies u^2 & = \sqrt 5 \varphi^3 \end{aligned}

The area of regular pentagon:

A 5 g o n = 5 u 2 tan 5 4 = 5 5 φ 3 1 + 2 5 = 5 5 φ 3 5 + 1 + 1 5 = 5 5 φ 3 2 φ + 1 5 Note that φ n = F n φ + F n 1 , where F n = 5 5 φ 3 φ 3 5 = 5 5 φ 9 denotes the n th Fibonacci number. = 5 5 ( 34 φ + 21 ) = 5 5 17 + 17 5 + 21 5 = 5 85 + 38 5 \begin{aligned} A_{\rm 5gon} & = 5u^2\tan 54^\circ = 5 \sqrt 5 \varphi^3 \sqrt{1+\frac 2{\sqrt 5}} \\ & = 5 \sqrt 5 \varphi^3 \sqrt{\frac {\sqrt 5+1+1}{\sqrt 5}} = 5 \sqrt 5 \varphi^3 \sqrt{\frac \blue{2\varphi +1}{\sqrt 5}} & \small \blue{\text{Note that }\varphi^n = F_n \varphi + F_{n-1} \text{, where }F_n} \\ & = 5 \sqrt 5 \varphi^3 \sqrt{\frac {\varphi^3}{\sqrt 5}} = 5\sqrt{\sqrt 5 \varphi^9} & \small \blue{\text{denotes the }n\text{th Fibonacci number.}} \\ & = 5\sqrt{\sqrt 5 (34\varphi + 21)} = 5 \sqrt{5\cdot 17 + 17 \sqrt 5 + 21 \sqrt 5} \\ & = 5\sqrt{85+38\sqrt 5} \end{aligned}

Therefore A + B + C + D = 5 + 85 + 38 + 5 = 133 A+B+C+D = 5+85+38+5 = \boxed{133} .

OMG, I didn't realize that v = u + 2 u sin ( 1 8 ) v= u + 2u \sin(18^\circ) .

Pi Han Goh - 4 months, 1 week ago

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Thanks my friend

Chew-Seong Cheong - 4 months, 1 week ago

In the figure, the small yellow regular pentagon has circumradius 1, its center is at the origin and the y-axis is an axis of symmetry. A A and B B are two of its vertices. As we can see here , the coordinate of these vertices are x A = 10 + 2 5 4 {{x}_{A}}=\dfrac{\sqrt{10+2\sqrt{5}}}{4} y A = 5 1 4 {{y}_{A}}=\dfrac{\sqrt{5}-1}{4} x B = 10 2 5 4 {{x}_{B}}=\dfrac{\sqrt{10-2\sqrt{5}}}{4} y B = 5 + 1 4 {{y}_{B}}=\dfrac{\sqrt{5}+1}{4} If we enlarge the pentagon to get the blue one with circumradius R R , the corresponding vertices are A ( R x A , R y A ) and B ( R x B , R y B ) {A}'\left( R{{x}_{A}},\ R{{y}_{A}} \right) \ \ \ \ \ \text{and} \ \ \ \ \ {B}'\left( R{{x}_{B}},\ R{{y}_{B}} \right) “Levitating” this pentagon to the desired place by a vector ( 0 c ) \left( \begin{matrix} 0 \\ c \\ \end{matrix} \right) , the vertices become A ( R x A , R y A + c ) and B ( R x B , R y B + c ) {A}''\left( R{{x}_{A}},\ R{{y}_{A}}+c \right) \ \ \ \ \ \text{and} \ \ \ \ \ {B}''\left( R{{x}_{B}},\ R{{y}_{B}}+c \right) for some positive real number c c .
Since A {A}'' and B {B}'' belong to the parabolas y = x 2 y={{x}^{2}} and y = 2 x 2 y=2{{x}^{2}} respectively, we have the following system of equations R y A + c = ( R x A ) 2 R y B + c = 2 ( R x B ) 2 \begin{aligned} & R{{y}_{A}}+c={{\left( R{{x}_{A}} \right)}^{2}} \\ & R{{y}_{B}}+c=2{{\left( R{{x}_{B}} \right)}^{2}} \\ \end{aligned} Combining we get R ( y A y B ) = R 2 [ ( x A ) 2 2 ( x B ) 2 ] R = y A y B ( x A ) 2 2 ( x B ) 2 R\left( {{y}_{A}}-{{y}_{B}} \right)={{R}^{2}}\left[ {{\left( {{x}_{A}} \right)}^{2}}-2{{\left( {{x}_{B}} \right)}^{2}} \right]\Rightarrow R=\dfrac{{{y}_{A}}-{{y}_{B}}}{{{\left( {{x}_{A}} \right)}^{2}}-2{{\left( {{x}_{B}} \right)}^{2}}} Plugging the corresponding values we find R = 3 + 5 R=3+\sqrt{5} Using the formula for the area of a regular pentagon with circumradius R R , we have A = 5 R 2 4 5 + 5 2 = 5 ( 3 + 5 ) 2 4 5 + 5 2 = = 5 85 + 38 5 A=\dfrac{5{{R}^{2}}}{4}\sqrt{\dfrac{5+\sqrt{5}}{2}}=\dfrac{5{{\left( 3+\sqrt{5} \right)}^{2}}}{4}\sqrt{\frac{5+\sqrt{5}}{2}}=\ldots =5\sqrt{85+38\sqrt{5}} For the answer, a = 5 a=5 , b = 85 b=85 , c = 38 c=38 , d = 5 d=5 , thus, a + b + c + d = 133 a+b+c+d=\boxed{133}

Gahhhhhhhh, using Cartesian geometry, I've found the two coordinates of the regular polygon in the first quadrant to be ( a , 2 a 2 ) , ( b , b 2 ) (a,2a^2), (b,b^2 ) , where

[WolframAlpha link](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=solve%2C+%28b-a%29%5E2+%2B+%28b%5E2+-+2a%5E2%29%5E2+%3D+4a%5E2%2C+b%5E2+%2B+%28b%5E2+-+%282a%5E2+%2B+a+<em>+sqrt%285+%2B+2sqrt5%29+%29%29%5E2+%3D+4a%5E2%2C+a&gt;0%2C+b&gt;0%2C+c+%3D+5a%5E2+</em>+cot%28pi%2F5%29) WolframAlpha link

And I got the area denoted as c c in WolframAlpha. But it doesn't let me simplify to a simple radical... Mathematica couldn't help either!!!

Pi Han Goh - 4 months, 1 week ago

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That's weird. The values match mine, by the way. I've found Wolfram|Alpha can sometimes struggle with what should be relatively simple calculations for it. Sometimes weird things like just changing the order of the terms, or relabelling variables seems to help, but it would be nice to know exactly why it stops working. Have you found this issue?

(by the way, your link to Alpha doesn't match the screenshot)

Chris Lewis - 4 months, 1 week ago

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found the issue? Well yeah, but i don't know how to resolve it... yet

Pi Han Goh - 4 months, 1 week ago

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@Pi Han Goh I mean more in general. It comes up a lot for me with Alpha; the most annoying thing is when I use Alpha's own output as an input and it's not recognised.

Chris Lewis - 4 months, 1 week ago

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@Chris Lewis I'm still a newbie in Mathematica so I don't know the answer....

Pi Han Goh - 4 months, 1 week ago

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