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jmc

geometry senior

Problem

A rectangular box has width inches, length inches, and height inches, where and are relatively prime positive integers. Three faces of the box meet at a corner of the box. The center points of those three faces are the vertices of a triangle with an area of square inches. Find .
Solution
Let the height of the box be . After using the Pythagorean Theorem three times, we can quickly see that the sides of the triangle are 10, , and . Since the area of the triangle is , the altitude of the triangle from the base with length is . Considering the two triangles created by the altitude, we use the Pythagorean theorem twice to find the lengths of the two line segments that make up the base of . We find: Solving for gives us . Since this fraction is simplified:
Final answer
41