is a triangle, is the bisector of angle , is extended to with . Find the measure of so that the area of is half the area of . Give your answer to 3 decimal places.
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In order to have the areas of Δ E A B and Δ A B C the same we will require that ∣ A E ∣ = ∣ A C ∣ , since the two triangles share the same altitude to E C . But since we require that ∣ A E ∣ = ∣ B D ∣ we have that ∣ B D ∣ = ∣ A C ∣ .
Now the bisector length formula gives us that
∣ B D ∣ 2 = ( 4 + 3 ) 2 4 ∗ 3 ( ( 4 + 3 ) 2 − ∣ A C ∣ 2 ) ,
which after substituting ∣ A C ∣ = ∣ B D ∣ and simplifying yields that
4 9 ∗ ∣ A C ∣ 2 = 1 2 ( 4 9 − ∣ A C ∣ 2 ) ⟹ ∣ A C ∣ 2 = 6 1 5 8 8 .
Now by the Cosine rule we have that
∣ A C ∣ 2 = ∣ A B ∣ 2 + ∣ B C ∣ 2 − 2 ∣ A B ∣ ∣ B C ∣ cos ( ∠ B )
⟹ 6 1 5 8 8 = 9 + 1 6 − 2 4 cos ( ∠ B )
⟹ cos ( ∠ B ) = 1 4 6 4 9 3 7 ⟹ ∠ B = arccos ( 1 4 6 4 9 3 7 ) = 5 0 . 2 0 6 ∘ to 3 decimal places.