Problem 13 (2011 AIME II) — AIME 2011 · USAMO Guide - Olympiad Mathematics Learning Platform

Problem 13 (2011 AIME II)

AIME 2011

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Understand the scale

Scale 0.5: Easiest math competition problems, often solvable even for early middle school students without experience. 1: Problems strictly for beginners, often at a moderate middle school level. 1.5: Problems for stronger beginner students, on the level of the middling problems in most middle school contests. 2: For motivated beginners, harder questions from the previous categories. 2.5: More advanced beginner problems, hardest questions from previous categories. 3: Early intermediate problems that require more creative thinking. 3.5: Tougher early intermediate problems that consistently stretch into higher-level creative thinking or conceptual knowledge. 4: Intermediate-level problems. 4.5: Upper intermediate problems approaching the upper bound for non-invitational sprint math competitions. 5: More difficult AIME problems or simple proof-based Olympiad-style problems. 6: High-level AIME-styled questions or introductory Olympiad-level questions. 7: Tougher Olympiad-level questions, may require more technical knowledge. 8: High-level Olympiad-level questions. 9: Expert Olympiad-level questions. 9.5: The hardest problems appearing on Olympiads which the strongest students could reasonably solve. 10: Historically notorious problems, generally unsuitable for even very hard competitions because they are exceedingly tedious, long, and difficult.

Problem

Point $P$ lies on the diagonal $AC$ of square $ABCD$ with $AP > CP$ . Let $O_{1}$ and $O_{2}$ be the circum centers of triangles $ABP$ and $CDP$ respectively. Given that $AB = 12$ and $\angle O_{1}PO_{2} = 120^{\circ}$ , then $AP = \sqrt{a} + \sqrt{b}$ , where $a$ and $b$ are positive integers. Find $a + b$ . Quickest Method of Solving This is a combination of Solutions 1 and 2. First, draw $O_1P,O_2P,BP,DP$ . Then, observe that $\angle BAP=45$ implies that $\angle BO_1P=90$ . So, $\triangle BO_1P$ is a $45-90-45$ triangle. Similarly, observe that $DO_2P$ is too. So, a rotation of $\angle O_1PO_2$ to $\angle BPO_2$ adds $45$ degrees. Then, moving to $BPD$ subtracts $45$ degrees. Hence, $\angle BPD=120$ . Let the intersection of $BD$ and $AC$ be $Q$ . Then $BQP$ is a $30-90-60$ triangle, hence $QP=\frac{6\sqrt{2}}{\sqrt{3}}$ (We know that $BQ$ is $6\sqrt{2}$ ), or $QP=2\sqrt{6}$ Finally, $AP=QP+AQ=2\sqrt{6}+6\sqrt{2}=\sqrt{24}+\sqrt{72} \Rightarrow \boxed{096}$

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