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Geometry Difficulty 6.9 National Olympiad Prove it Belarus

Three of six segments (three sides and three medians of a triangle) are painted red, and three others are painted blue.
Can one construct a triangle using the segments of the same color as its sides?

Solution

Answer: yes, one can.

Let GG be a gravicenter of the triangle ABCABC, and A1A_1, B1B_1, C1C_1 be the midpoints of the sides BCBC, ACAC, ABAB respectively. Denote the sides and the medians of the triangle ABCABC in the following way: AB=cAB = c, BC=aBC = a, CA=bCA = b, AA1=dAA_1 = d, BB1=eBB_1 = e, CC1=fCC_1 = f.

Suppose that one can paint three of six segments mentioned red and three others blue so that it is not possible to construct a triangle using the segments of the same color. Then the length of some red segment is not less than the sum of two other red segments; the same is true for blue segments.

So, there are two of six segments, the sum of which is not less than the sum of four others: x+yz+u+v+wx + y \ge z + u + v + w. We show, however, that this situation is not possible. Consider the following three cases.

1) Both xx and yy are some sides of ABC\triangle ABC. Without loss of generality, let a+bc+d+e+fa + b \ge c + d + e + f. But from the triangles BGCBGC and AGCAGC we have 2f/3+2e/3>a2f/3 + 2e/3 > a and 2f/3+2d/3>b2f/3 + 2d/3 > b. Summing all three inequalities we get f/3>c+d/3+e/3f/3 > c + d/3 + e/3 which contradicts the triangle inequality for medians: d+e>fd + e > f.

2) Both xx and yy are some medians of ABC\triangle ABC. Without loss of generality, let d+ea+b+c+fd + e \ge a + b + c + f. But from the triangles BGC1BGC_1 and AGC1AGC_1 we have f/3+c/2>2e/3f/3 + c/2 > 2e/3 and f/3+c/2>2d/3f/3 + c/2 > 2d/3, or f/2+3c/4>ef/2 + 3c/4 > e and f/2+3c/4>df/2 + 3c/4 > d. It follows that f+3c/2>d+ea+b+c+ff + 3c/2 > d + e \ge a + b + c + f, or c/2>a+bc/2 > a + b, a contradiction.

3a) xx and yy are a side and a median of ABC\triangle ABC having the common endpoint. Without loss of generality, let a+eb+c+d+fa+e \ge b+c+d+f. But this inequality contradicts the inequalities a<b+ca < b+c and e<d+fe < d+f.

3b) xx is a median of ABC\triangle ABC with the endpoint in the middle of the side yy. Without loss of generality, let a+db+c+e+fa + d \ge b + c + e + f. But this inequality contradicts the inequalities a<b+ca < b+c and d<e+fd < e+f.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.