Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2011

Geometry Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it South Africa

Let OO be the intersection point of the diagonals of the convex quadrilateral ABCDABCD, with AO=OCAO = OC. Points PP and QQ are marked on the segments AOAO and COCO, respectively, such that PO=OQPO = OQ. Let NN be the intersection of ABAB and DPDP, and KK be the intersection of CDCD and BQBQ.
Prove that the points NN, OO and KK are collinear.

Solution

Figure 1
Draw NMKLACNM \parallel KL \parallel AC as in the figure. From the similarity of the triangles BOQBOQ and BLKBLK it follows that
LKOQ=BLBO=1+LOBO, \frac{LK}{OQ} = \frac{BL}{BO} = 1 + \frac{LO}{BO},
From the similarity of the triangles DOCDOC and DLKDLK it follows that
LKOC=DLDO=1LODO. \frac{LK}{OC} = \frac{DL}{DO} = 1 - \frac{LO}{DO}.
Therefore
LK(1OQ1OC)=LO(1BO+1DO). LK \left( \frac{1}{OQ} - \frac{1}{OC} \right) = LO \left( \frac{1}{BO} + \frac{1}{DO} \right).
Hence
LKLO=DO+BODOBOOCOQOCOQ=BDDOBOOCOQQC. \frac{LK}{LO} = \frac{DO + BO}{DO \cdot BO} \cdot \frac{OC \cdot OQ}{OC - OQ} = \frac{BD}{DO \cdot BO} \cdot \frac{OC \cdot OQ}{QC}.
Similarly we obtain
NMOM=BDDOBOOCOQQC. \frac{NM}{OM} = \frac{BD}{DO \cdot BO} \cdot \frac{OC \cdot OQ}{QC}.
Therefore, since NMO=KLO\angle NMO = \angle KLO and LKLO=NMOM\frac{LK}{LO} = \frac{NM}{OM}, triangles ONMONM and OKLOKL are similar. Hence NOM=KOL\angle NOM = \angle KOL. Since MOLMOL is a straight line, it follows that so is NOKNOK.

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