David Altizio Non-Olympiad Geometry Page 1

Non-Olympiad Geometry
David Altizio

Here’s a collection of 30 problems that I think have more of a computational flavor to them than
an Olympiad flavor (though some of them might blur the line a bit). I pulled this together in about 40
minutes, so it’s not perfect, but most of the problems here are quite nice. Also, difficulty is probably
wack and, in general, pretty hard.

1. (Christmas Math Competitions 2020) Let ABC be an acute triangle with circumradius 10. Let
D be the foot of the altitude from B to AC, and suppose AD = 4 and CD = 8. Find the area of
4ABC.

2. (Carnegie Mellon 2017, Own) In acute triangle ABC, points D and E are the feet of the angle bi-
sector and altitude from A respectively. Suppose that AC − AB = 36 and DC − DB = 24. Compute
EC − EB.

3. (West-Windsor Plainsboro) Two circles, ω1 and ω2 , have radii of 5 and 12 respectively, and their
centers are 13 units apart. The circles intersect at two different points P and Q. A line ` is drawn
through P and intersects the circle ω1 at X , P and ω2 at Y , P . Find the maximum value of
PX ·PY.

4. (Carnegie Mellon 2016, with Joshua Siktar) Let P be a parallelepiped with side lengths x, y,
and z. Suppose that the four space diagonals of P have lengths 15, 17, 21, and 23. Compute
x2 + y 2 + z2 .

5. (Mandelbrot 2004-2005) Two circles in the Cartesian plane have four common tangent lines. If
the slopes of these lines are 2, 3, 4, and m, in increasing order, then calculate m.

6. (AoPS) Let ABCD be an isosceles trapezoid with AB parallel to CD. There exists a circle γ that
is tangent to all four sides of ABCD. Circle γ is tangent to side BC at T . Let AT intersect γ again
AP
at P . If AT = 25 , then find CD
AB
.

7. (Mandelbrot 2007-2008) Altitudes AP and BQ of an acute triangle 4ABC intersect at point H.

If HP = 5 while HQ = 2, then calculate

(BP )(P C) − (AQ)(QC).

8. (NICE Spring 2021, with Arul Kolla) Let ABC be an isosceles right triangle with AB = AC, and
denote by M the midpoint of BC. Construct rectangle AXBY , with X in the interior of 4ABC,
such that Y M = 8 and AY 3 + BY 3 = 103 . Find the area of quadrilateral AXBC.

Y
X

B M C
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9. (Mandelbrot 1995-1996) A circle with radius one is centered at the origin. Four points, A, B, C,
and D, are chosen on the circle so that AC and BD intersect at ( 12 , 0) and AC ⊥ BD. Find the
maximum possible area of quadrilateral ABCD.

10. (Harvard-MIT 2004) Right triangle XY Z has right angle at Y and XY = 228, Y Z = 2004. Angle
Y is trisected, and the angle trisectors intersect XZ at P and Q so that X, P , Q, and Z lie on XZ
in that order. Find the value of (P Y + Y Z)(QY + XY ).

11. (Carnegie Mellon 2019, Own) Let ABC be a triangle with AB = 13, BC = 14, and AC = 15.
Denote by ω its incircle. A line ` tangent to ω intersects AB and AC at X and Y respectively.
Suppose XY = 5. Compute the positive difference between the lengths of AX and AY .

12. (Thomas Mildorf) ABC is an isosceles triangle with base AB. D is a point on AC and E is the
point on the extension of BD past D such that ∠BAE is right. If BD = 15, DE = 2, and BC = 16,
then compute CD.

13. (Mandelbrot 1999-2000) In acute triangle ABC we have cos A cos B = 13 and sin A sin B = 12 . If the
area of 4ABC is 1, what is the area of the orthic triangle? (The orthic triangle has vertices at the
feet of the altitudes of the original triangle.)

14. (Carnegie Mellon 2017, Own) Two circles ω1 and ω2 are said to be orthogonal if they intersect
each other at right angles. In other words, for any point P lying on both ω1 and ω2 , if `1 is the
line tangent to ω1 at P and `2 is the line tangent to ω2 at P , then `1 ⊥ `2 . (Two circles which do
not intersect are not orthogonal.)
Let 4ABC be a triangle with area 20. Orthogonal circles ωB and ωC are drawn with ωB centered
at B and ωC centered at C. Points TB and TC are placed on ωB and ωC respectively such that ATB
is tangent to ωB and ATC is tangent to ωC . If ATB = 7 and ATC = 11, what is tan ∠BAC?

15. (Harvard-MIT 2009) Points A and B lie on circle ω. Point P lies on the extension of segment AB
past B. Line ` passes through P and is tangent to ω. The tangents to ω at points A and B intersect
` at points D and C respectively. Given that AB = 7, BC = 2, and AD = 3, compute BP .

16. (NICE Spring 2021) David attempts to draw a regular hexagon ABCDEF inscribed in a circle ω
of radius 1. However, while the points A through E are accurately placed, his point F is slightly
off, and so the diagonals AD, BE, and CF do not concur (Fortunately for him, the location of
point F on ω is the only inaccurate part of the diagram). Undeterred by his artistic deficiencies,
David pretends that the diagram is accurate1 by shading in the circumcircle of the triangle
1
bounded by these three line segments, which has radius 24 . He then continues to draw the rest
of the diagram.
√
The area of the hexagon ABCDEF that David actually drew can be expressed in the form a− bc d,
where a, b, c, and d are positive integers such that b and c are relatively prime and d is not
divisible by the square of any prime. Find a + b + c + d.

17. (Carnegie Mellon 2017, Own) Points A, B, and C lie on a circle Ω such that A and C are diamet-
rically opposite each other. A line ` tangent to the incircle of 4ABC at T intersects Ω at points
X and Y . Suppose that AB = 30, BC = 40, and XY = 48. Compute T X · T Y .
1 Big Point Theorem!
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18. (Tovi Wen) Let E be an ellipse with a major axis of length 10. Circle ω with center O is tangent
to E at P . The line OP intersects the major and minor axes of E at X and Y , respectively. Suppose
that P X = 4 and P Y = 6. Find the distance between the foci of E.

19. (Mandelbrot 2004-2005) Let point O be the origin of a three-dimensional coordinate system,
and let
√ points A, B, and C be located on the positive x, y, and z axes, respectively. Suppose
OA = 4 75 and m∠BAC = 30◦ . Compute the area of 4ABC.

20. (Carnegie Mellon 2016, Own) Let ABC be a triangle with incenter I and incircle ω. It is given
that there exist points X and Y on the circumference of ω such that ∠BXC = ∠BY C = 90◦ . Sup-
pose further that X, I, and Y are collinear. If AB = 80 and AC = 97, compute the length of
BC.

21. (TKMT, Own) Let ABC be a triangle with AB = 3 and AC = 4. Points O and H are the circum-
center and orthocenter respectively of the triangle. If OH k BC, then find cos A.

22. (NIMO 21, with Evan Chen) Let ABCD be an isosceles trapezoid with AD k BC and BC > AD
such that the distance between the incenters of 4ABC and 4DBC is 16. If the perimeters of
ABCD and ABC are 120 and 114 respectively, then find the area of ABCD.

23. (Carnegie Mellon 2017, Own) Suppose 4ABC is such that AB = 13, AC = 15, and BC = 14. It
is given that there exists a unique point D on side BC such that the Euler lines of 4ABD and
BD
4ACD are parallel. Determine the value of CD .

24. (Mandelbrot 1995-1996) Points A, B, C, and D lie equally spaced along a line in the order given
with AB = BC = CD = 1. A point P is located so that sin(m∠AP C) = 53 and sin(m∠BP D) = 45 .
Determine sin(2m∠BP C).

25. (Math Prize 2015) In the diagram below, the circle with center A is congruent to and tangent to
the circle with center B. A third circle is tangent to the circle with center A at point C and passes
through point B. Points C, A, and B are collinear. The line segment CDEFG intersects the circles
at the indicated points. Suppose that DE = 6 and FG = 9. Find AG.

G
9
6 F
D E

C A B

26. (Christmas Mathematics Competitions 2018, with Sean Kim) Let 4ABC be a triangle with incen-
ter I, and let P be the intersection of line AI with the circumcircle of 4ABC. Let points X and Y
denote the incenters of 4ABP and 4AP C, respectively. Suppose that XY = 2 and BI 2 + CI 2 = 15.
Find cos ∠BAC.
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27. (iTest 2008) Given a convex, n-sided polygon P , form a 2n-sided polygon clip(P ) by cutting off
each corner of P at the edges’ trisection points. In other words, clip(P ) is the polygon whose
vertices are the 2n edge trisection points of P , connected in order around the boundary of P .
Let P1 be an isosceles trapezoid with side lengths 13, 13, 13, and 3, and for each i ≥ 2, let Pi =
clip(Pi−1 ). This iterative clipping process approaches a limiting shape P∞ = limi→∞ Pi . If the
difference of the areas of P10 and P∞ is written as a fraction yx in lowest terms, calculate the
number of positive integer factors of x · y.

28. (Carnegie Mellon 2016, Own) Let 4ABC be a triangle with AB = 65, BC = 70, and CA = 75. A
semicircle Γ with diameter BC is erected outside the triangle. Suppose there exists a circle ω
tangent to AB and AC and furthermore internally tangent to Γ at a point X. Find AX.

29. (Carnegie Mellon 2020, with Misha Ivkov) Four copies of an acute scalene triangle T , one of
whose sides has length 3, are joined to form a tetrahedron with volume 4 and surface area 24.
Compute the largest possible value for the circumradius of T .

30. (Harvard-MIT 2020, Andrew Gu) Circles ωa , ωb , ωc have centers A, B, C, respectively and are
pairwise externally tangent at points D, E, F (with D ∈ BC, E ∈ CA, F ∈ AB). Lines BE and CF
meet at T . Given that ωa has radius 341, there exists a line ` tangent to all three circles, and
there exists a circle of radius 49 tangent to all three circles, compute the distance from T to `.