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Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Italy

Choose points H,K,MH, K, M on the sides of a triangle ABCA B C such that AHA H is an altitude, BKB K is a bisector, and CMC M is a median. Let DD denote the intersection between AHA H and BKB K, and let EE denote the intersection between HMH M and BKB K. Given that KD=2,DE=1,EB=3K D=2, D E=1, E B=3:
(i) prove that HMH M is parallel to ACA C;
(ii) prove that AB=ACA B=A C;
(iii) prove that AB=BCA B=B C.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

i) Triangles EMBE M B and KABK A B are similar because
MB:AB=EB:KB. M B : A B = E B : K B.
and the angle at BB is shared. Therefore KA^B=EM^BK \hat{A} B = E \hat{M} B and CAMHC A \parallel M H.

ii) By Thales' theorem we have CB=2HBC B = 2 H B, from which we deduce that CH=HBC H = H B and that AHA H is the median relative to CBC B. Since AHA H by hypothesis is also the altitude, the triangle ABCA B C is isosceles.

iii) Since BD=2DKB D = 2 D K, the centroid of ABCA B C lies on the line rr passing through DD and parallel to ACA C (by Thales' theorem). On the other hand, the centroid also lies on the median AHA H, and therefore the centroid is the point DD of intersection of these two lines (note that the two lines are not parallel, since ACA C is a side and AHA H is a median of the triangle ABCA B C). Therefore BKB K passes through the centroid and hence is a median. Since BKB K is also a bisector, BA=BCB A = B C.

Solution 2

iii) BKB K is the median relative to CAC A. Indeed, suppose by contradiction that the midpoint of CAC A is KKK' \neq K. Since the intersection point of BKB K' with CMC M (which we call DD') is the centroid of ABCA B C, we would have
KBDB=32=KBDB \frac{K' B}{D' B} = \frac{3}{2} = \frac{K B}{D B}
Therefore, since KB^K=DB^DK \hat{B} K' = D \hat{B} D', the triangle DDBD D' B would be similar to KKBK K' B and CMC M would be parallel to CAC A, which is absurd. We deduce that KK and KK' are the same point and that BKB K is a median. Since by hypothesis BKB K is also a bisector, ABCA B C is isosceles also at BB and therefore is equilateral.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.