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2003 AIME II Problems/Problem 7

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Problem

Find the area of rhombus ABCD given that the radii of the circles circumscribed around triangles ABD and ACD are 12.5 and 25, respectively.

Solution

The diaganols of the rhombus perpendicularly bisect each other. Call half of diagonal BD a and half of diagonal AC b. The length of the four sides of the rhombus is \sqrt{a^2+b^2}. The area of any triangle can be expressed as the abc/4R, where a,b, and c are the sides and R is the circumradius. Thus, the area of triangle ABD is ab=2a(a^2+b^2)/(4\cdot12.5). Also, the area of triangle ABC is ab=2b(a^2+b^2)/(4\cdot25). Setting these two expressions equal to each other and simplifying gives b=2a. Substitution yields a=10 and b=20, so the area of the rhombus is 20\cdot40/2=400.

See also

2003 AIME II (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 6
Followed by
Problem 8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Want to learn how to tackle those tough MATHCOUNTS and AMC counting and probability problems? Check out Art of Problem Solving's Introduction to Counting & Probability by David Patrick.
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