SMT 2012

Geometry Test and Solutions

February 18, 2012

_

1. A circle with radius 1 has diameter AB. C lies on this circle such that AC / BC= 4. AC divides
the circle into two parts, and we will label the smaller part Region I. Similarly, BC also divides
the circle into two parts, and we will denote the smaller one as Region II. Find the positive
difference between the areas of Regions I and II.
Answer:

3
10

Solution: Let O be the center of the circle. Note that CO bisects AB, so the areas of 4ACO
and 4BCO are equal. Hence, the desired difference in segment areas is equal to the difference
_

in the areas of the corresponding sectors. The sector corresponding to AC has area
_
3

, so the desired difference is

sector corresponding to BC has area 10
.
10

2
5 ,

and the

2. In trapezoid ABCD, BC k AD, AB = 13, BC = 15, CD = 14, and DA = 30. Find the area of
ABCD.
Answer: 252
Solution: We can use the standard method of setting up a two-variable system and solving for
the height of the trapezoid. However, since one base is half the length of the other, we may
take a shortcut. Extend AB and CD until they meet at E. Clearly, BC is a midline of triangle
EAD, so we have EA = 2BA = 26 and ED = 2CD = 28. The area of EAD is therefore four
times that of a standard 13-14-15 triangle, which we know is 12 14 12 = 84 (since the altitude
to the side of length 14 splits the triangle into 9-12-15 and 5-12-13 right triangles). The area of
the trapezoid is 43 the area of EAD by similar triangles, and is therefore 3 84 = 252 .
A similar solution draws lines from B and C to the midpoint of AD to form three 13 14 15
triangles.
3. Let ABC be an equilateral triangle with side length 1. Draw three circles Oa , Ob , and Oc with
diameters BC, CA, and AB, respectively. Let Sa denote the area of the region inside Oa and
outside of Ob and Oc . Define Sb and Sc similarly, and let S be the area of the region inside all
three circles. Find Sa + Sb + Sc S.
Answer:

3
2

Solution: Let x be 1/4 the area of ABC, and let y be the area of a 60 degree sector of Oa
minus x. Note that
Sa = Sb = Sc = 3x + y, S = x + 3y,

so Sa + Sb + Sc S = 8x = 2|4ABC| = 3/2 .
4. Let ABCD be a rectangle with area 2012. There exist points E on AB and F on CD such
that DE = EF = F B. Diagonal AC intersects DE at X and EF at Y . Compute the area of
triangle EXY .
Answer:

503
6

Solution: Let (XY Z) denote the area of triangle XY Z.

After a bit of angle-chasing, we can use SAS congruence to prove that 4DEF
= 4BF E, so
EB
= DF and therefore AE
= F C. If we draw altitudes from E and F onto CD and AB,
respectively, we note that 2AE = 2F C = DF = BE, so AE = 13 AB.
CD
Next, note that 4AEX 4CDX, so CX
AX = AE = 3. Also, 4CF Y 4AEY , so
1
1
1. Hence, XY = 4 AC = (EXY ) = 4 (EAC).

CY
AY

CF
AE

SMT 2012

Geometry Test and Solutions

February 18, 2012

Finally, AE = 13 AB = (EAC) = 31 (BAC). Since BAC is half the rectangle and therefore has
503
area 1006, we get (EXY ) = 1006
.
12 =
6
5. What is the radius of the largest sphere that fits inside an octahedron of side length 1?
Answer:

Solution: It is obvious that the sphere must be tangent to each face, because if not, then it can
be moved so that it is tangent to four faces; now the radius can be increased until the sphere is
tangent to the other four. Additionally, it is clear that the center of the sphere should be in the
center of the octahedron.
Now notice that the sphere must be tangent to the octahedron at the centroid of each face. This
can be seen by symmetry. It is clear that it should be tangent somewhere along the median
from one vertex to the opposite side, and this is true for all three medians, which meet at the
centroid.
Now we can proceed in a few ways. One way is to isolate one half of the octahedron i.e. a
square-based pyramid. Slice this pyramid in half perpendicular to the square base and parallel
to one of the sides of the square base. This slice will go through the medians of two opposite
triangular faces, in addition to the center of the
sphere itself. Hence, we get an isosceles triangle
ABC with base BC = 1 and legs of length 3/2. O, the center of the sphere, is the midpoint
of BC. The radius of the sphere is the altitude from O to AB. If this altitude intersects AB at
D, then we have
OD AB = AO BO,

(1/ 2)(1/2)

=
since both equal twice the area of AOB, and so DO = AOBO
= 1/ 6 .
AB
3/2

Alternatively, note that our octahedron can be obtained by reflecting the region x+y+z 1/ 2,
x, y, z 0 across the xy, yz, and zx planes. The inscribing spherehas its center at
origin, so its
radius is the distance from the origin to the plane x + y + z = 1/ 2, which is 1/ 6.
6. A red unit cube ABCDEF GH (with E below A, F below B, etc.) is pushed into the corner
of a room with vertex E not visible, so that faces ABF E and ADHE are adjacent to the wall
and face EF GH is adjacent to the floor. A string of length 2 is dipped in black paint, and one
of its endpoints is attached to vertex A. How much surface area on the three visible faces of the
cube can be painted black by sweeping the string over it?

+ 31
Answer: 2
3
Solution: First, it is clear that all of face ABCD can be painted black. This has area 1.
Now we look at the other two visible faces. By symmetry, we only need to consider one of
these faces, say BCGF . Unfold BCGF along BC so that it is coplanar with ABCD, forming a
rectangle AF 0 G0 D with width 1 and height 2. Now, it is clear that the region that can be painted
on BCGF is precisely the part of BCG0 F 0 that is at most two units away from A. Let a circle
centered at A with radius two intersect DG0 at X. Since AX = 2, AD = 1, and AD XD,
we conclude that mDAX = 3 = F 0 AX = 6 . Letting (P1 P2 . . . Pn ) denote the area of the
n-gon with vertices P1 , . . . , Pn , we can write the desired area as

22
3
0
area of sector F AX + (AXD) (ABCD) =
+
1.
12
2

SMT 2012

Geometry Test and Solutions

February 18, 2012

Putting all this together, we get our final answer to be

!

2
3
+ 31 .
1 =
1 + 2 /3 +
3
2
7. Let ABC be a triangle with incircle O and side lengths 5, 8, and 9. Consider the other tangent
line to O parallel to BC, which intersects AB at Ba and AC at Ca . Let ra be the inradius of
triangle ABa Ca , and define rb and rc similarly. Find ra + rb + rc .
Answer:

6 11
11

Solution: We claim that the answer is equal to the inradius in general. Let Ta = ABa Ca ,
Tb = Ab BCb , Tc = Ac Bc C be the smaller triangles cut by the tangents drawn to O. Also let
D, E, and F be the points of tangency between O and BC, CA, and AB respectively. By
considering the fact that tangents to O from the same point should have the same length, we
have ABa + Ba Ca + Ca A = AE + AF . If we sum this over all vertices, then we can see that
the sum of the perimeters of Ta , Tb , and Tc equals the perimeter of A. Then, the Principle of
Similarity gives ra + rb + rc = r where r is inradius of ABC. The inradius can be calcultaed by
Herons Formula as
p

s(s a)(s b)(s c)

11 6 3 2
6 11
=
=
.
r=
s
11
11
Alternatively, let ha denote the height of the altitude from A to BC, and let r be the inradius
of ABC. Since 4ABC 4ABa Ca and since the altitude from A to Ba Ca has length ha 2r,
we get
ra
ha 2r
=
.
r
ha
Noticing that
r=

aha
(ABC)
=
,
a
+
b+c
+ b + c)

1
2 (a

we get

a
.
a+b+c
Applying the same reasoning to ra and rb , we can compute
ra = r 2r

ra + rb + rc = 3r 2r = r.
8. Let ABC be a triangle with side lengths 5, 6, and 7. Choose a radius r and three points outside
the triangle Oa , Ob , and Oc , and draw three circles with radius r centered at these three points.
If circles Oa and Ob intersect at C, Ob and Oc intersect at A, Oc and Oa intersect at B, and all
three circles intersect at a fourth point, find r.
Answer:

35 6
24

Solution: Let the point where all three circles intersect be denoted as X.
First, note that AOb XOc , BOc XOa , and COa XOb are all rhombi. This helps us easily prove
that AOb k BOa . Since these segments are also congruent, we get that ABOa Ob is a parellogram,
and hence AB
= Oa Ob . Similarly, BC
= Ob Oc and CA
= Oc Oa .

SMT 2012

Geometry Test and Solutions

February 18, 2012

Since r is clearly the circumradius of Oa Ob Oc , this equals the circumradius of ABC, which is
computed as

567
abc
35 6
=
=
.
4(ABC)
24
4 9432
Alternatively, consider a homothety of ratio 2 around X. Let A0 X, B 0 X, and C 0 X be diameters
of circles Oa , Ob , and Oc , respectively. Then the homothety takes Oa to A0 , Ob to B 0 , and Oc
to C 0 ; furthermore, since Oa Ob perpendicularly bisects XC, the midpoint of Oa Ob is taken to
Cthat is, A0 B 0 has midpoint C, and similarly A0 C 0 has midpoint B and B 0 C 0 has midpoint A.
Therefore, ABC is the midpoint triangle of A0 B 0 C 0 , from which we conclude that A0 BC, AB 0 C,
and ABC 0 are each congruent to ABC. But r is the circumradius of each of these triangles,
hence is the circumradius of ABC.
9. In quadrilateral ABCD, mABD
= mBCD and ADB = ABD + BDC. If AB = 8 and
AD = 5, find BC.
Answer:

39
5

Solution: Note that ADB and CBD are supplementary. Therefore, we can extend AD past
D to a new point C 0 such that 4DBC
= 4BDC 0 (alternatively, consider flipping 4DBC over

the altitude to BD). Since ABD = AC 0 B, we have 4ABD 4AC 0 B, and so

AB
AB 2
64
AC 0
=
= AC 0 =
= .
AB
AD
AD
5
Since AC 0 = AD + DC 0 , we get DC 0 = BC =

64
5

5=

39
.
5

p
10. A large flat plate of glass is suspended 2/3 units above a large flat plate of wood. (The glass

is infinitely thin and causes no funny refractive effects.) A point source of light is suspended 6
units above the glass plate. An object rests on the glass plate of the following description. Its
base is an isosceles trapezoid ABCD with ABkDC, AB = AD = BC = 1, and DC = 2. The
point source of light is directly above
the midpoint of CD. The objects upper face is a triangle
EF G with EF = 2, EG = F G = 3. G and AB lie on opposite sides of the rectangle EF CD.
The other sides of the object are EA = ED = 1, F B = F C = 1, and GD = GC = 2. Compute
the area of the shadow that the object casts on the wood plate.

Answer: 4 3
Solution: We have A = B = 120 and C = D = 60 at the base, and the three side
faces ADE, BCF , and CDG are all equilateral triangles. If those faces are folded down to
the glass plate, they will form a large equilateral triangle of side length 3. Let E0 , F0 , and G0
be the vertices of this equilateral triangle corresponding to E, F and G, respectively; the large
triangle can be folded up along AD, CD, and BD respectively to form the three side faces of
the object.
Observe that M , the midpoint of CD, is the centroid of E0 F0 G0 . As side ADE is folded along
AD, which is perpendicular to E0 M , the projection of E onto the glass plate still lies on EM .
This also holds for the projections of F and G, so projections E1 , F1 , and G1 of E, F , and G
lie on E0 M , F0 M and G0 M respectively.
Since EF CD is a rectangle, E1 F1 CD is as well. Thus E1 D is perpendicular to EA. From E0 E1
being perpendicular to AD we can conclude that E1 should be the center of triangle ADE0 .

SMT 2012

Geometry Test and Solutions

February 18, 2012

Symmetry gives AE = DE = E0 E, so AE0 DE should be a regular tetrahedron. A similar

argument applies to BF0 CF .

The next step is to figure out the location of G. As EG = 3 and DG = 2, it follows that
DEG is right. Similarly CF G is also right, so plane EF G should be perpendicular to plane
EF CD.
Now we cut the whole object along the perpendicular bisector plane of AB and consider its crosssection along the plane. It will cut AB and EF along their midpoints N and P respectively.
As ABM P forms
of side length 1 and N is midpoint of AB, we have
a regular tetrahedron
N M = N P = 3/2.Also M G = 3 and M P G is right. Let Q be the midpoint of M G;
then P Q = M Q = 3/2, since right triangles are inscribed in semicircles. It follows
that
N P M and QM
P are congruent and N P and M G are parallel. From M G = M G0 = 3 and
N P = N M = 3/2, this gives similarity between N M P and M G0 G, and GG0 = 2P M = 2.
Therefore DCGG0 also forms a regular tetrahedron.
Since AE0 DE , BF0 CF , and CG0 DG are all regular tetrahedrons, we have three lines E0 E,
F0 F , and G0 G meeting at a point X where E0 F0 G0 X forms a regular tetrahedron of side length
3. Thus we finally demystified our object completely: it was obtained by cutting the regular
tetrahedron E0 F0 G0 X along planes EF G, ADE, BCF , CDG. Moreover we find that X is
actually our point source, as it is also
directly above M - both the midpoint of CD and the
center of E0 F0 G0 - and its height is 6, the same as that of point source. So the projection
of the object to the glass plate will be exactly E0 F0 G0 , an equilateral triangle of side length 3.
Hence the projection down to the wood plate will give an equilateral triangle of side length 4,

and our answer is its area, 4 3 .