Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /15 of 16

Geometry Difficulty 7.0 National olympiad Prove it Czech Republic

In the interiors of the sides ABAB, BCBC, CACA of a given triangle ABCABC, points KK, LL and MM, respectively, are given such that
AKKB=BLLC=CMMA \frac{|AK|}{|KB|} = \frac{|BL|}{|LC|} = \frac{|CM|}{|MA|}
Show that the triangles ABCABC and KLMKLM have a common orthocenter if and only if the triangle ABCABC is equilateral.

Solution

A point VV of the plane containing a triangle ABCABC is its orthocenter if and only if, at the same time, AVBCAV \perp BC and BVACBV \perp AC; that is, AVBC=0AV \cdot BC = 0 and BVAC=0BV \cdot AC = 0. Substituting BC=BVCVBC = BV - CV and AC=AVCVAC = AV - CV, an easy manipulation leads to the equivalent condition in the form of the equality of the scalar products
AVBV=AVCV=BVCV.(1) AV \cdot BV = AV \cdot CV = BV \cdot CV. \quad (1)
Our goal is thus to find out when the system (1) is satisfied together with the analogous system
KVLV=KVMV=LVMV,(2) KV \cdot LV = KV \cdot MV = LV \cdot MV, \quad (2)
expressing the fact that the point VV is the orthocenter of the triangle KLMKLM. We now express the vectors from (2) as linear combinations of the vectors from (1). By hypothesis, there exists a number pp, 0<p<10 < p < 1, for which
AK=pAB,BL=pBC,CM=pCA. AK = pAB, \quad BL = pBC, \quad CM = pCA.

Substituting into the first equality AK=AVKVAK = AV - KV and AB=AVBVAB = AV - BV, we get after a small manipulation the first of the following three equalities
KV=(1p)AV+pBV, LV=(1p)BV+pCV, MV=(1p)CV+pAV; KV = (1-p)AV + pBV, \ LV = (1-p)BV + pCV, \ MV = (1-p)CV + pAV;
the other two can be derived similarly. Taking products, we get
KVLV=(1p)2AVBV+p(1p)AVCV+p(1p)BV2==(1p)s+p(1p)BV2, KV \cdot LV = (1-p)^2 AV \cdot BV + p(1-p)AV \cdot CV + p(1-p)BV^2 = \\ = (1-p)s + p(1-p)BV^2,
where ss denotes the common value of the products from (1). Similarly,
KVMV=(1p)s+p(1p)AV2andLVMV=(1p)s+p(1p)BV2. KV \cdot MV = (1-p)s + p(1-p)AV^2 \quad \text{and} \quad LV \cdot MV = (1-p)s + p(1-p)BV^2.
We see that the system (2) is equivalent to the system of equalities
p(1p)AV2=p(1p)BV2=p(1p)CV2, p(1-p)AV^2 = p(1-p)BV^2 = p(1-p)CV^2,
which, in view of the condition p(1p)0p(1-p) \neq 0, is fulfilled if and only if AV=BV=CV|AV| = |BV| = |CV|. The last condition means that the orthocenter VV of the triangle ABCABC coincides with its circumcenter. This happens if and only if the triangle ABCABC is equilateral.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.