Warm Up 2 Problem 6

Brainstorming
Lets look at what weve been given in the problem so that we have an idea of where to start. Explicitly given details: P A = AB = 4 DC = 4 3 AB is parallel to DC Some details that we will need that arent as obviously given: Quadrilateral ABCD is inscribed in the circle, in other words, it is a cyclic quadrilateral. In general, we would need to use all facts given in a problem, so lets formulate a solution keeping all these in mind!

Scratch work
Here is the gure drawn:

Figure 1: Quadrilateral ABCD inscribed in a circle.

09/20/2013

C. A. Lao

Warm Up 2 Problem 6 First, whats special about a cyclic quadrilateral ? One of the most important things is: The sum of opposite angles of a cyclic quadrilateral is always 180 . For example, in this problem, ABC + CDA = 180 BAD + DCB = 180

(1) (2)

What else were we given in this problem (that might possibly relate to angles since we just discovered something about angles)? AB and CD are parallel! This means that BAD + CDA = 180 DCB + ABC = 180 We can then conclude the following: (1), (3) (2), (4) ABC = BAD DCB = CDA

(3) (4)

which then tells us that ABCD is a trapezoid! Lets now make use of the other information that we were given. Lets draw in a few extra line segments: P B, P C, P D. Note that P A, P B, P C, P D are all radii. So we have P B = P A = AB = 4 P AB is equilateral

which tells us that P AB = ABP = BP A = 60 . Additionally, P C = P D = 4. From this point on, we would like to know something more about P CD. Through experience, it will be easy to identify that triangles whose sides are in the ratio 1 : 1 : 3 have angles 120 , 30 , 30 . Alternatively, this can also be gotten through the cosine law. Another way would be to draw the height from P to CD (see Figure 2).

09/20/2013

C. A. Lao

Warm Up 2 Problem 6

Figure 2: A 1 :

3 : 2 triangle

By the Pythagorean theorem, we can get that the height has length 2, which means that we have a 1 : 3 : 2 triangle, in other words, a 30 60 90 triangle. This means that AP B + CP D = 180 . Were almost done! Now keeping in mind that ABCD is a trapezoid, that is, BC = AD, we see that BP C is congruent to AP D. Therefore, BP C = AP D. And thus, BP C = 1 (360 AP B CP D) 2 1 (360 180 ) = 2 = 90

And so BP C is a right triangle with P B = P C = 4. Finally, by the Pythagorean theorem, we obtain BC = (BP )2 + (P C )2 = 16 + 16 = 4 2

09/20/2013

C. A. Lao