Browse · MATH
Printjmc
geometry senior
Problem
Triangle has vertices at , , and . The point with coordinates is chosen inside the triangle so that the three small triangles , and all have equal areas. What is the value of ?
Solution
If is the centroid of triangle , then , , and would all have equal areas (to see this, remember that the medians of a triangle divide the triangle into 6 equal areas). There is only one point with this property (if we move around , the area of one of the small triangles will increase and will no longer be of the total area). So must be the centroid of triangle . The and coordinates of the centroid are found by averaging the and coordinates, respectively, of the vertices, so , and .
Final answer
49