34. Construct a Triangle ABC Given the Length of AB and the Sum and Product of the Other Two Sides
This Demonstration shows how to construct a triangle given the length of the side , the sum of the lengths of the other two sides and their product . The numbers and satisfy the quadratic equation . It is solved graphically using Descartes's method for constructing roots of polynomials.[more]
1. Draw a vertical line and a horizontal line .
2. Through , draw a vertical line .
3. Draw a circle with center and radius . Let and be the points of intersection of the circle with .
4. Draw points and on a horizontal line through such that and is the midpoint of .
5. Let the point be the intersection of the circle with center and radius and the circle with center and radius .
6. The triangle satisfies the given conditions.
According to Descartes's method, and are the solutions of the quadratic equation, but and , so and . By step 5, .[less]
Let . Thus or . The triangle inequality is , which is . Suppose ; the triangle inequality implies .