Right Angled Triangle Park Paths

XAT 2012 · Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation · Hard · Geometry

A city has a park shaped as a right angled triangle. The length of the longest side of this park is 80 m. The Mayor of the city wants to construct three paths from the corner point opposite to the longest side such that these three paths divide the longest side into four equal segments. Determine the sum of the squares of the lengths of the three paths.

  1. A.

    4000 m

  2. B.

    4800 m

  3. C.

    5600 m

  4. D.

    6400 m

  5. E.

    7200 m

Answer

C

Explanation

Let right-angled vertex be BB, hypotenuse AC=80AC = 80. a2+b2=802=6400a^2 + b^2 = 80^2 = 6400. Points D,E,FD, E, F divide ACAC into 4 equal segments of 20 m each. BEBE is the median to hypotenuse   ⟹  BE=40  ⟹  BE2=1600\implies BE = 40 \implies BE^2 = 1600. By Apollonius theorem on △ABE\triangle ABE and △EBC\triangle EBC: BD2+BF2+202+202=12(a2+b2+402+402)=12(6400+3200)=4800BD^2 + BF^2 + 20^2 + 20^2 = \frac{1}{2}(a^2 + b^2 + 40^2 + 40^2) = \frac{1}{2}(6400 + 3200) = 4800. BD2+BF2=4800−800=4000BD^2 + BF^2 = 4800 - 800 = 4000. Sum of squares = BD2+BE2+BF2=4000+1600=5600 m2BD^2 + BE^2 + BF^2 = 4000 + 1600 = 5600\text{ m}^2.

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