Revisiting coordinate 3!

Geometry Level 5

A triangle A B C ABC is given where vertex A A is ( 1 , 1 ) (1,1) and its orthocenter is ( 2 , 4 ) (2,4) .

Also sides A B AB and B C BC are members of the family of lines a x + b y + c = 0 x+by+c = 0 , where a , b a,b and c c form an arithmetic progression .

If the coordinates of the circumcenter of the triangle A B C ABC can be represented as ( d , e ) (d,e) , where d d and e e are real numbers , find d + e d+e .

-5.5 -6.5 0 -6.8 -9 -1.5 -2

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Mark Hennings
Sep 19, 2017

The equation of A B AB is a x + b y + c = 0 ax+by+c=0 where a + c = 2 b a+c=2b . Since A A lies on this line, a + b + c = 0 a+b+c=0 . Hence b = 0 b=0 , and so A B AB has equation x = 1 x=1 . Thus B B has coordinates ( 1 , u ) (1,u) for some u u . Since A B AB is parallel to the y y -axis, H C HC is parallel to the x x -axis, and hence C C has coordinates ( v , 4 ) (v,4) for some v v .

Since A H AH has gradient 3 3 , B C BC has gradient 1 3 -\tfrac13 , and hence has equation x + 3 y = 3 u + 1 x + 3y = 3u+1 . Thus 1 + ( 3 u + 1 ) = 2 × 3 1 + -(3u+1) = 2\times3 , and hence u = 2 u=-2 . In addition v + 12 = 3 u + 1 = 5 v + 12 = 3u+1 = -5 , and hence v = 17 v = -17 . Thus A , B , C A,B,C have coordinates ( 1 , 1 ) (1,1) , ( 1 , 2 ) (1,-2) , ( 17 , 4 ) (-17,4) respectively. Taking the average of these, the centroid G G of the triangle has coordinates ( 5 , 1 ) (-5,1) . Since G G lies on the line O H OH with O G = 1 3 O H OG = \tfrac13OH , we deduce that O O has coordinates ( 17 2 , 1 2 ) \big(-\tfrac{17}{2},-\tfrac12\big) . Thus d + e = 17 2 1 2 = 9 d+e = -\tfrac{17}{2} - \tfrac12 = \boxed{-9} .

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...