Finding a non-equilateral triangle whose sides form a geometric sequence and whose angles form an arithmetic sequence

geometrytrianglestrigonometry

This question was on a math competition.

Is there a triangle, which is not equilateral, whose sides form a geometric sequence and whose angles form an arithmetic sequence?

If such a triangle exists, find its sides and angles.

My attempt:

Assume a triangle with sides $a$, $ar$ and $ar^2$ and its angles $\theta-\phi$ ,$\theta$ and $\theta+\phi$.

Now sum of triangles is always $180°$.
So $\theta = 60°$.

Then using the sine law,
$\dfrac{\sin(\theta-\phi)}a=\dfrac{\sin\theta}{ar}=\dfrac{\sin(\theta+\phi)}{ar^2}$

Cancelling the a and plugging in the equation the value of $\theta$,

$\dfrac{\sin(60°-\phi)}1=\dfrac{\sin60°}{r}=\dfrac{\sin(60°+\phi)}{r^2}$

This is where I am stuck.

Best Answer

Following your work, we have

$$r = \frac{\sin\frac{\pi}{3}}{\sin\left(\frac{\pi}{3} - \phi\right)} = \frac{\sin\left(\frac{\pi}{3} + \phi\right)}{\sin\frac{\pi}{3}}$$

The last two terms give $\sin\left(\frac{\pi}{3} - \phi\right)\sin\left(\frac{\pi}{3} + \phi\right) = \frac{3}{4}$. We have

$$\begin{align*} LHS &= \left(\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}\cos\phi - \frac{1}{2}\sin\phi\right)\left(\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}\cos\phi + \frac{1}{2}\sin\phi\right) \\ &= \frac{3}{4}\cos^2\phi - \frac{1}{4}\sin^2\phi \end{align*}$$

Setting equality, we have

$$\cos^2\phi - \frac{1}{3}\sin^2\phi = 1$$

From this, it is clear that we need $\sin^2\phi = 0$, so there is no non-degenerate triangle satisfying your requirements (assuming your sine law equations are correct :)

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