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jmc

geometry senior

Problem

The points , and lie on the surface of a sphere with center and radius . It is given that , , , and that the distance from to is , where , , and are positive integers, and are relatively prime, and is not divisible by the square of any prime. Find .
Solution
Let be the foot of the perpendicular from to the plane of . By the Pythagorean Theorem on triangles , and we get: It follows that , so is the circumcenter of . By Heron's Formula the area of is (alternatively, a triangle may be split into and right triangles): From , we know that the circumradius of is: Thus by the Pythagorean Theorem again, So the final answer is .
Final answer
118