Isosceles triangle and inscribed circle

geometrytriangles

If the center of the inscribed circle in a isosceles triangle is dividing the height of the triangle in a proportion 5 : 12, what's the lenght of the legs if the base is 50cm?

Best Answer

Let us draw a picture for the story:

Stackexchange problem 3683964

Here $AB$ is the base with the mid point $O$ (placed in the origin of the axes in the picture), and $C$ is on the side bisector of $AB$. The triangle from the $OP$ is $\Delta ABC$, and we know that it has the incenter $I$ delimiting the proportion $5:12$ on the height $CO$. First of all, the "samller part" is $IO$, because $O$ is the biggest angle in $\Delta CAO$. So we have explicitly, also using the angle bisector theorem in this triangle: $$ \frac{5}{12} = \frac{IO}{IC} = \frac{AO}{AC} = \frac{AB/2}{AC} = \frac{25}{AC} \ . $$ This gives $AC=60$.

$\square$

The picture was drawn using scale one to five.