Not As Easy as you think, but still pretty easy

Geometry Level 4

Let A B C \bigtriangleup ABC be an equilateral triangle inscribed in a circle. Let P P be a point on the minor arc of B C BC . If P B = 5000 PB = 5000 and P C = 346910923809328090099 PC = 346910923809328090099 . What is the length of A P AP ?

Note : The numbers are indeed 5000 and 346910923809328090099.


The answer is 346910923809328095099.

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2 solutions

Louis W
Aug 13, 2015

Here is an inaccurate picture of this problem:

For the moment, and for ease of typing, call the length of PC "x".

The triangle being equilateral works out nicely as it splits the circle into 3 equal minor arcs, each being 2 π 3 \frac{2\pi}{3} .

We can use the formula for an inscribed angle to find both angles formed by P:

m A P B = m A P C = 1 2 ( 2 π 3 ) = π 3 m\angle APB=m\angle APC=\frac{1}{2}(\frac{2\pi}{3})=\frac{\pi}{3}

We now have the two angles above and the lengths of PB and PC. We want the length of AP (call that length "b"). All we are missing is the length of the side of the equilateral triangle (call that length "c"). But maybe we don't need it if we use the Law of Cosines twice.

1) c 2 = x 2 + b 2 2 x b cos π 3 = x 2 + b 2 x b c^{2}=x^{2}+b^{2}-2xb\cos \frac{\pi}{3}=x^{2}+b^{2}-xb

2) c 2 = 500 0 2 + b 2 2 ( 5000 ) b cos π 3 = 500 0 2 + b 2 5000 b c^{2}=5000^{2}+b^{2}-2(5000)b\cos \frac{\pi}{3}=5000^{2}+b^{2}-5000b

And now we can set equations 1 and 2 equal to one another and solve for b. x 2 + b 2 x b = 500 0 2 + b 2 5000 b x^{2}+b^{2}-xb=5000^{2}+b^{2}-5000b b = x 2 500 0 2 x 5000 = ( x + 5000 ) ( x 5000 ) x 5000 = x + 5000 \Rightarrow b=\frac{x^{2}-5000^{2}}{x-5000}=\frac{(x+5000)(x-5000)}{x-5000}=x+5000 And finally, take that gargantuan number "x", go to the thousand's place and add 5. Luckily the thousand's place is a 0, so all one must do is copy/paste that big number and change one digit, like so: 34691092380932809 5099 34691092380932809\color{#D61F06}{5}099

A less bashier solution would be to set the triangle side length as x x . Then Ptomely's, x P A = x P B + x P C P A = P B + P C xPA = xPB + xPC \implies PA = PB + PC Substitute the values in and you get the answer.

Alan Yan - 5 years, 9 months ago

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I've never heard of Pompeius's or Ptomely's Theorem before, so I'm sure other people haven't either. I simply offered an alternative to your strategy.

Louis W - 5 years, 9 months ago
Alan Yan
Aug 10, 2015

By Pompeius's Theorem, PA = PB + PC = 346910923809328095099 \boxed{346910923809328095099}

Note that the numbers don't really matter in this problem, you just need to add them.

To prove Pompeius's Theorem, just use Ptomely's Theorem.

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