[Math] Finding an angle within an 80-80-20 isosceles triangle

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The following is a geometry puzzle from a math school book. Even though it has been a long time since I finished school, I remember this puzzle quite well, and I don't have a nice solution to it.

So here is the puzzle:

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The triangle $ABC$ is known to be isosceles, that is, $AC=BC$. The labelled angles are known to be $\alpha=\gamma=20°$, $\beta=30°$. The task is to find the angle labelled "?".

The only solution that I know of is to use the sine formula and cosine formula several times. From this one can obtain a numerical solution. Moreover this number can be algebraically shown to be correct (all sines and cosines are contained in the real subfield of the 36th cyclotomic field). So in this sense I solved the problem, but the solution is kind of a brute force attack (for example, some of the polynomials that show up in the computation have coefficients > 1000000). Since the puzzle originates from a book that deals only with elemetary geometry (and not even trigonometry if I remember correctly) there has to be a more elegant solution.

Best Answer

The solutions are not as trivial as one would expect from the statement. It's called Langley's problem of adventitious angles first posed in The Mathematical Gazette in 1922.

Check out An Intriguing Geometry Problem by Tom Rike.

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