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Topic: Altitudes of Triangle (Read 1565 times) |
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ThudnBlunder
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Altitudes of Triangle
« on: Jul 28th, 2009, 12:42am » |
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What is the probability that the altitudes of a triangle may themselves form another triangle?
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Grimbal
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Re: Altitudes of Triangle
« Reply #1 on: Jul 28th, 2009, 12:45am » |
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1.
The altitudes of a triangle may form another triangle. I know at least one case.
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ThudnBlunder
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Re: Altitudes of Triangle
« Reply #2 on: Jul 28th, 2009, 1:11am » |
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on Jul 28th, 2009, 12:45am, Grimbal wrote:1.
The altitudes of a triangle may form another triangle. I know at least one case. |
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OK, what is the probability that they WILL form another triangle? 
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Grimbal
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Re: Altitudes of Triangle
« Reply #3 on: Jul 28th, 2009, 2:21am » |
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That depends on how you randomly draw a triangle, what is the distribution of triangles you consider.
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Eigenray
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Re: Altitudes of Triangle
« Reply #4 on: Jul 28th, 2009, 3:33am » |
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For example, we could randomly pick a point on the unit sphere in the first octant; it will represent a triangle with probability
12/ cot-1 2 - 2 ~ 35.1%.
Conditioned on this point representing a triangle, the altitudes will form a triangle with probability ~ 58.1%. But it's a nasty trig integral for the exact value: Let
A =  uv f(csc t - sec t, sec t ) dt + v/4 f(1/(sin t + cos t), sec t ) dt
where
u = sec-1 [ 5 / 2 ], v = tan-1 [ (5 - 1)/2 ],
and
f(a,b) = atan aatan b sin  d= 1/{1+a2} - 1/{1+b2}
A ~ 0.0534 is the area of the region on the unit sphere satisfying
1/(1/y + 1/z)  x y z x+y
Of course, a simpler approach is to set, say, z = 1, and compute the area of the set of x,y on the plane such that the above holds. The set of (x,y) with 0 x y z x+y has area 1/4, so we multiply by 4 and get
2 - 5 + 4 log [ 5 - 1 ] ~ 61.2 %
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Eigenray
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Re: Altitudes of Triangle
« Reply #5 on: Jul 28th, 2009, 4:15am » |
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Thirdly, we can pick a point on the plane x+y+z = 1; since this is linear the ratio of areas is the same if we project onto the x-y plane. This obviously gives
[ 485 (log 2 - arccsch 2) + 455 - 110 ] / 25 ~ 53.5%
I believe that's my first time using the inverse of the hyperbolic cosecant  Well, that's what Mathematica gives. We can also write
log 2 - arccsch 2 = log [ 5 - 1 ]
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| « Last Edit: Jul 28th, 2009, 4:23am by Eigenray » |
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ThudnBlunder
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Re: Altitudes of Triangle
« Reply #6 on: Jul 28th, 2009, 6:56am » |
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Ha, I knew that you (or another math whizz) would quickly see right through this 'problem', Eigenray.
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