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TheXSquaredFactor

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UsernameTheXSquaredFactor
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Questions 3
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 #3
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This question took me over an hour to solve, but I can now share my findings with you! I am making the assumption that you meant triangles AXB and AXC in place of APB and APC. It is quite algebra-intensive. If this is not what you meant, then I wasted a long time of my day today :(

 

I created a diagram, and I added line segments and circles where I found necessary. I realize that the diagram is quite large and cluttered. Here it is below:

 

I will be utilizing coordinate geometry for this problem. With the diagram in its current orientation, I know that B=(-14,0) and X=(0,0) and C=(4,0). This way, I know the length of the base of ABC is 18. The only coordinate I need now is the y-coordinate of point A because that is the height of ABC. Finding the area of the triangle is trivial at that point. Unfortunately, finding this coordinate is not so easy. 

 

Since I don't know what the y-coordinate of point A, and I do not see an easy way to find the y-coordinate (or even the x-coordinate) of point A, I will denote them with variable letters. Let a = the x-coordinate of point A, and let b = the y-coordinate of point A. It would be nice if there was a way to relate a and b together, and I see one way of doing that. Since XA=13, I can use the distance formula to relate a and b together like so:

 

d2XA=(a0)2+(b0)2132=a2+b2b2=169a2b=169a2

 

b is now written in terms of a, but now I am going to introduce a theorem that seems unrelated. That theorem states the following: The perpendicular bisector of a chord of a circle passes through the center of that circle. I have slyly used that theorem to my advantage here. ¯AX is a chord of both circumcircles of ABX and ACXED is the perpendicular bisector of ¯AX, which, by the theorem I just stated, also pass through the circumcenters of both triangles. 

 

We can find the slope of ¯AX and then use the properties of perpendicular line to find the slope of ED.

m¯AX=bamED=ab

 

But we can do more than that! Point M on the diagram represents the midpoint of ¯AX, and we can find those coordinates in terms of a and b, too.

M=(a2,b2).

 

But we can do more that that, too. We can now derive an equation of ED because we know the slope of the line and one point of the line. I will use point-slope form to start and simplify as much as possible from there.

yb2=ab(xa2)y=abx+a22b+b2y=2a2bx+a22b+b22by=2ax+a2+b22b I substituted in 169a2 for b2 because I noticed that there would be some nice cancellation.
y=2ax+a2+(169a2)2by=2ax+1692b I decided not to simply further than this, at least for now.
   


Remember that theorem I mentioned earlier? Yeah, we are using that one again. ¯BX is a chord of circle E, so E's center lies on its perpendicular bisector, which also lies on the line x=7. By parallel reasoning, circle D's center lies on x=2. Let's use this newly discovered information to our advantage again!

 

yE=2a7+1692byE=14a+1692b yD=2a2+1692byD=4a+1692b
   

 

We now know the x- and y-coordinates of the both circumcircles, so we can use the distance formula to write an expression for both radii.

 

d¯EX=rEd¯EX=(70)2+(yE0)2d¯EX=49+y2E d¯DX=rDd¯DX=(20)2+(yD0)2d¯DX=4+y2D
   

 

Conveniently, both radii are of the same length, so we can set the distances we just found equal to each other. We will finally be able to isolate a variable. How exciting! At this point, the rest is simply a test of your algebraic finesse. For an added challenge, I decided to avoid the use of a calculator.

 

49+y2E=4+y2D49+y2E=4+y2D45+y2E=y2D Let's subsitute in the corresponding expressions for yE and yD.
45+(14a+1692b)2=(4a+1692b)245+196a2+216914a+16924b2=16a221694a+16924b2180b2+196a2+28169a+1692=16a28169a+1692180(169a2)+196a2+28169a=16a28169a45(169a2)+49a2+7169a=4a22169a4516945a2+45a2+7169a=2169a45169+7169a=2169a45+7a=2a9a=45a=5 We finally solved for a. Yes, I checked if the value for a seems reasonable, and it certainly does.
b=169a2b=169(5)2b=12  
   

 

Finally! Remember that b was the y-coordinate of point A, which is also the height of ABC. Now, we can finally find the area of the triangle.

 

AABC=121812AABC=108

 

That's it! We are done.
 


 

May 16, 2020