A right has sides , , and hypotenuse . Point is on such that . Then , where and are coprime positive integers. What is ?
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We clearly have the 7 , 2 4 , 2 5 primitive Pythagorean triplet for △ A B C . Let point D divide hypothenuse A C into lengths A D = x , D C = 2 5 − x such that:
2 5 − x x = 3 2 ⇒ x = 1 0
or A D = 1 0 , D C = 1 5 . We can then compute B D 2 per the Law of Cosines. WLOG, let us utilize △ B C D :
B D 2 = B C 2 + C D 2 − 2 ( B C ) ( C D ) cos ∠ C ;
or B D 2 = 2 4 2 + 1 5 2 − 2 ( 2 4 ) ( 1 5 ) ⋅ cos ( arccos 2 5 2 4 ) = 8 0 1 − 5 3 4 5 6 = 5 5 4 9 .