Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2016

Geometry Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Slovenia

Let ABCDABCD be a convex quadrilateral such that AB=BC=CD|AB| = |BC| = |CD|. The lines ABAB and CDCD intersect at the point EE, and the circumcircles of the triangles ABCABC and BDEBDE intersect at BB and FF. Let PP denote the intersection of the lines ACAC and BFBF. Prove that EPEP is the bisector of the angle AED\angle AED.

Solution

II/3. Due to different configurations we will proceed using directed angles.
Let TT, distinct from EE, be the intersection of the circumcircles of the triangles BDEBDE and ACEACE. The power line (radical axis) of the circumcircles of the triangles ABCABC and BDEBDE is BFBF, the power line of the circumcircles of the triangles ABCABC and ACEACE is ACAC, and the power line of the circumcircles of the triangles ACEACE and BDEBDE is ETET. The Power-of-a-Point theorem states that these three lines intersect at a single point. The lines ACAC and BFBF intersect at PP, so PP must also lie on the line ETET. Due to the concyclicity of the points B,T,DB, T, D and EE we have
TBA=TBE=πEDT=TDC, \asymp TBA = \asymp TBE = \pi - \asymp EDT = \asymp TDC,
and due to concyclicity of A,T,CA, T, C and EE we have
BAT=πTAE=ECT=DCT. \asymp BAT = \pi - \asymp TAE = \asymp ECT = \asymp DCT.
The triangles ABTABT and CDTCDT have three matching angles and AB=CD|AB| = |CD|, so they are congruent. This implies that AT=CT|AT| = |CT| and BT=DT|BT| = |DT|. Since AB=BC=CD|AB| = |BC| = |CD|, we see that the triangles ABTABT and CBTCBT have three matching sides and are congruent and the same is true for the triangles BCTBCT and DCTDCT. These two congruences imply that TBA=CBT\asymp TBA = \asymp CBT and TCB=DCT\asymp TCB = \asymp DCT.
In the triangle BCEBCE the point TT lies on the intersection of the bisectors of the angles CBE\asymp CBE and ECB\asymp ECB. So, TT is the incentre of the triangle BCEBCE and the bisector of the angle BEC\asymp BEC also passes through TT. The points E,PE, P and TT are collinear, so EPEP is the bisector of AED\asymp AED.

Figure 1

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.