There's an applic- therom for that

Geometry Level 5

Δ A B C \Delta ABC has side lengths 4 4 , 51 51 and 53 53 . Each of its sides are trisected and lines are drawn to each point of trisection from their corresponding angle. By doing this, a hexagon is created in the middle of the triangle. The area of this hexagon can be represented by p = x ( x 1 ) ( x 2 ) 2 + x p=x(x-1)(x-2)^2+x where x x is an integer and p p is the area of the hexagon. Find x x .

This problem is similar to one I posted previously but took down. This problem has different lengths and a different solution.


The answer is 3.

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2 solutions

Michael Mendrin
Jul 9, 2014

Marion Walter's Theorem states that such an hexagon formed by the side trisectors of any triangle has exactly 1 10 \frac { 1 }{ 10 } the area of the triangle. Using Heron's formula, triangle ABC is found to have an area of 90 90 . Hence, p = 9 p=9 . A little algebra gets you x = 3 x=3 .

Are there any proofs for this theorem?

Samuraiwarm Tsunayoshi - 6 years, 11 months ago

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There is, it uses a lot of coordinate geometry www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNaUDN65D1U

Trevor Arashiro - 6 years, 10 months ago

You can prove it using Routh's theorem, link is http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routh's_theorem

Daniel Remo - 6 years, 10 months ago

This is such a silly way of asking a question... you can easily compute the area A by Heron's formula and given that x is an integer, the only 3 possible values for which the expression doesn't exceed A are 2, 3 and 4. You can't really get this wrong, even if you don't have a proof. There's too much additional information and the challenge in solving it is completely gone.

T B - 6 years, 10 months ago
Daniel Remo
Aug 4, 2014

Let the points W , U , V , X , Y , Z W,U,V,X,Y,Z be the points of trisection on A B , B C , C A AB,BC,CA respectively in that order. Note by Heron's formula, the area of the triangle is 90 90 . Now let B Z , C U BZ,CU meet at P, B Z , A Z BZ,AZ meet at Q and A X , C U AX,CU meet at R, and let the points D , E , F , G , H , I D,E,F,G,H,I be the points of the hexagon that lie on the sides P Q , Q R , R P PQ,QR,RP respectively in that order. Now the area of the hexagon equals

( P Q R ) ( P D I ) ( Q E F ) ( R G H ) (PQR)-(PDI)-(QEF)-(RGH)

By Routh's theorem (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routh's_theorem), the corresponding areas are 90 7 , 9 7 , 9 7 , 9 7 \frac{90}{7},\frac{9}{7},\frac{9}{7},\frac{9}{7} so the area of the hexagon is 9 9 and then a little algebra reveals x = 3 x=3

Do u mean BZ, AX

Trevor Arashiro - 6 years, 9 months ago

And your solution surprised me. I thought Marion's was the only way.

Trevor Arashiro - 6 years, 9 months ago

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Not too surprising. Marion's theorem can be reduced to the equilateral triangle case (areas are changed by the same factor), which can then be proven using Routh's theorem.

This, in essence, is what @Daniel Remo did above.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 4 months ago

But just a quick question, what would happen to Routh's when the triangle sides are broken into a ratio of 1:1:1. Then it's (1-1)^2*area. Which is 0 no matter what

Trevor Arashiro - 6 years, 9 months ago

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If you mean that we bisect each side (ie the the cevians are medians) then indeed the area is 0 which means they are concurrent. I.e you can use Routh's Theorem to show concurrency too :)

Daniel Remo - 6 years, 4 months ago

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