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Belarus competition problems

Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it Belarus

Two lines pass through the point F(0;14)F(0; \frac{1}{4}) on the Cartesian plane. These lines are perpendicular to each other and intersect the parabola y=x2y = x^2 at the points AA, BB, CC and DD (these points are mentioned in the xx-coordinate increasing order). The difference of projections of the segments ADAD and BCBC to the xx-axis equals mm.
Find the area of the quadrilateral ABCDABCD.

Solution

Answer: m22\frac{m^2}{2}.
Denote the abscissas of the points AA, BB, CC and DD by aa, bb, cc and dd respectively. It is easy to see that the perpendicularity of the lines ACAC and BDBD is equivalent to the equality (a+c)(b+d)=−1(a+c)(b+d) = -1 and the condition about the difference of projections is equivalent to the equality (a+c)−(b+d)=m(a+c)-(b+d)=m. The fact that the point FF belongs to the lines ACAC and BDBD means that ac=bd=−14ac = bd = -\frac{1}{4}. Let a+c=pa+c = p and b+d=qb+d = q, then the numbers aa and cc are the roots of the quadratic equation x2−px−14=0x^2-px-\frac{1}{4}=0 and the numbers bb and dd are the roots of the quadratic equation x2−qx−14=0x^2-qx-\frac{1}{4}=0. Hence c−a=p2+1c-a = \sqrt{p^2+1} and d−b=q2+1d-b = \sqrt{q^2+1}. Since the diagonals ACAC and BDBD of the quadrilateral ABCDABCD are perpendicular, its area SS is equal to half the product of the lengths of the diagonals. So,

S=12(c−a)(d−b)1+(c+a)21+(d+b)2==12(1+p2)(1+q2)=(q+qp2)(p+pq2)2pq=−(p−q)2−2=m22.\begin{aligned} S &= \frac{1}{2}(c-a)(d-b)\sqrt{1+(c+a)^2}\sqrt{1+(d+b)^2} = \\ &= \frac{1}{2}(1+p^2)(1+q^2) = \frac{(q+qp^2)(p+pq^2)}{2pq} = \frac{-(p-q)^2}{-2} = \frac{m^2}{2}. \end{aligned}

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