Choose points on the sides of a triangle such that is an altitude, is a bisector, and is a median. Let denote the intersection between and , and let denote the intersection between and . Given that :
(i) prove that is parallel to ;
(ii) prove that ;
(iii) prove that .
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
i) Triangles and are similar because
and the angle at is shared. Therefore and .
ii) By Thales' theorem we have , from which we deduce that and that is the median relative to . Since by hypothesis is also the altitude, the triangle is isosceles.
iii) Since , the centroid of lies on the line passing through and parallel to (by Thales' theorem). On the other hand, the centroid also lies on the median , and therefore the centroid is the point of intersection of these two lines (note that the two lines are not parallel, since is a side and is a median of the triangle ). Therefore passes through the centroid and hence is a median. Since is also a bisector, .
Solution 2
iii) is the median relative to . Indeed, suppose by contradiction that the midpoint of is . Since the intersection point of with (which we call ) is the centroid of , we would have
Therefore, since , the triangle would be similar to and would be parallel to , which is absurd. We deduce that and are the same point and that is a median. Since by hypothesis is also a bisector, is isosceles also at and therefore is equilateral.