Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2019

Geometry Difficulty 7.6 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Turkey

In an acute triangle ABCABC, let DD be the midpoint of [BC][BC] and PP be a point on [AD][AD]. The interior angle bisectors of ABPABP and ACPACP intersect at QQ. Let BQQCBQ \perp QC. Prove that Q[AP]Q \in [AP].

Solution

By angle chasing, we have
BAC+BPC=2BAC+ABP+ACP=2(BAC+ABQ+ACQ)=2BQC=180. \begin{aligned} \angle BAC + \angle BPC &= 2\angle BAC + \angle ABP + \angle ACP \\ &= 2(\angle BAC + \angle ABQ + \angle ACQ) = 2\angle BQC = 180^{\circ}. \end{aligned}
Let RR be a point on [PD][PD] such that PD=DRPD = DR. Since BD=DCBD = DC and PD=DRPD = DR, we conclude that BPCRBPCR is a parallelogram. Therefore BRC=BPC=180BAC\angle BRC = \angle BPC = 180^{\circ} - \angle BAC which means that BACRBACR is a cyclic quadrilateral. Since BD=DCBD = DC, the areas of the triangles ABRABR and ACRACR are equal. We also have ABR+ACR=180\angle ABR + \angle ACR = 180^{\circ} and hence we get
ABBR=ACCR AB \cdot BR = AC \cdot CR
which shows that
ABAC=CRBR=BPCP. \frac{AB}{AC} = \frac{CR}{BR} = \frac{BP}{CP}.

Let Q=BQAPQ' = BQ \cap AP. (Notice that since the triangle ABCABC is acute, QQ' must be on the line segment [AP][AP].) By bisector theorem, we get
ACCP=ABBP=AQPQ \frac{AC}{CP} = \frac{AB}{BP} = \frac{AQ'}{PQ'}
and hence CQCQ' should also be bisector of the angle ACPACP, i.e., C,Q,QC, Q, Q' are collinear. This is possible only if QQ[AP]Q \equiv Q' \in [AP].

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