Locus of the Incenter

Geometry Level 5

Let P \mathbf{P} be the locus of the incenters of all possible right triangles with a common hypotenuse. If the length of this common hypotenuse is 1 1 , and the area locus P \mathbf{P} encloses is A A , then find 1000 A \lfloor 1000A\rfloor


The answer is 285.

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1 solution

Daniel Liu
May 4, 2014

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Let's first observe one of the right triangles.

Note that A I AI and B I BI are angle bisectors because of the definition of incenter. Thus, I A C = I A B \angle IAC = \angle IAB and I B C = I B A \angle IBC = \angle IBA .

Note that C A B + C B A = 9 0 \angle CAB + \angle CBA = 90^{\circ} , so I A B + I B C = 9 0 2 = 4 5 \angle IAB + \angle IBC = \dfrac{90^{\circ}}{2}=45^{\circ} .

Thus, A I B = 18 0 4 5 = 13 5 \angle AIB = 180^{\circ}-45^{\circ} = 135^{\circ} .

This means the locus of all possible incenters above the hypotenuse is a 360 135 × 2 = 9 0 360-135\times 2=90^{\circ} section of a circle:

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The mirror image on the other side forms the complete locus:

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We just need to find the area of the shaded region.

First, the side length of the square shown above is 1 2 = 2 2 \dfrac{1}{\sqrt{2}}=\dfrac{\sqrt{2}}{2} . Thus, the area of it is 1 2 \dfrac{1}{2} .

Also, the area of the quarter section of one of the big circles is 1 4 π ( 2 2 ) 2 = π 8 \dfrac{1}{4}\pi\left(\dfrac{\sqrt{2}}{2}\right)^2=\dfrac{\pi}{8} . Thus, the area of both of them combined is π 4 \dfrac{\pi}{4} .

Now we subtract the area of the square to cancel off the area that we don't need, and to get the area of the shaded region., Thus, A = π 4 1 2 0.285 A=\dfrac{\pi}{4}-\dfrac{1}{2}\approx 0.285

And our answer is 285 \boxed{285}

Dude great problem! :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years ago

Wonderful problem! I was thinking in terms of an ellipse but did not realize that since point C describes a circle, the in-centre must also describe a circle.

ajit athle - 6 years, 1 month ago

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