Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /51 of 426

Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it Saudi Arabia

In square ABCDABCD with side 11, point EE lies on BCBC and FF lies on CDCD such that ∠EAB=20∘\angle EAB = 20^{\circ}, ∠EAF=45∘\angle EAF = 45^{\circ}. Find the length of altitude AHAH of △AEF\triangle AEF.

Solution

Take point GG on the opposite ray of ray DCDC such that GD=BEGD = BE. Then two triangles ABEABE, ADGADG are congruent, implies that AE=AGAE = AG and ∠EAB=∠DAG=20∘\angle EAB = \angle DAG = 20^{\circ}. Thus
∠FAG=∠FAD+∠DAG=∠EAB+∠DAG=45∘. \angle FAG = \angle FAD + \angle DAG = \angle EAB + \angle DAG = 45^{\circ}.
Thus two triangles AEFAEF, AGFAGF have common side AFAF and AE=AGAE = AG and ∠FAG=∠FAE=45∘\angle FAG = \angle FAE = 45^{\circ}, thus △AEF≅△AGF\triangle AEF \cong \triangle AGF, then AH=AD=1AH = AD = 1, where AHAH is the altitude with respect to vertex AA in triangle AEFAEF.

□\square

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.