and be the lengths of the median, the angle bisector and the altitude, respectively, from the right-angled vertex of a triangle to the hypotenuse. Suppose that the side is fixed in length, while the side varies subject to . Evaluate the value of the following correct upto three places of decimals:
Let
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Without loss of generality, we may assume that the side length c = 1 . Let us embed the triangle A B C into the Euclidean plane R 2 as follows. Place it so that the vertex A is at the origin, the vertex B at the point ( 0 , 1 ) , and the point C as a variable point ( c , 0 ) . We then have explicit formulae for w , m , h as functions of c . In particular, we realize that m ( c ) is simply half the length of the hypotenuse, whence m ( c ) = 2 1 + c 2 . Next, let W be the point of intersection of the hypotenuse and the line y = x . Then w ( c ) is the length of the line segment A W . The hypotenuse lies on the line with equation y = c − x + 1 , whence W has coordinates ( c + 1 c , c + 1 c ) . Thus w ( c ) = c + 1 2 c . Finally, we may compute h ( c ) via similar triangles and deduce that 1 h ( c ) = 1 + c 2 c . Thus the desired limit is equal to c → 1 lim c + 1 2 c − c 2 + 1 c 2 1 + c 2 − 1 + c 2 c = c → 1 lim 2 c ( 2 c 2 + 2 − c − 1 ) ( c − 1 ) 2 ( c + 1 ) . We can evaluate this limit by the usual conjugation trick in first year calculus, to obtain the limit c → 1 lim 2 c ( 2 c 2 + 2 − c 2 − 2 c − 1 ) ( c − 1 ) 2 ( c + 1 ) ( 2 c 2 + 2 + c + 1 ) = c → 1 lim 2 c ( c + 1 ) ( 2 c 2 + 2 + c + 1 ) = 4 , by inspection.