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Geometry Difficulty 8.2 Shortlist Prove it Germany

Problem:

In an acute-angled triangle ABCABC let the interior angles α,β,γ\alpha, \beta, \gamma be denoted as usual. Furthermore, let the intersection point of the angle bisector of α\alpha with BCBC be denoted by DD and the intersection point of the angle bisector of β\beta with ACAC be denoted by EE.

Now a rhombus is inscribed in the quadrilateral ABDEABDE in such a way that all vertices of this rhombus lie on different sides of the quadrilateral. In this rhombus, let the non-obtuse interior angles be denoted by φ\varphi. Prove that φmax(α,β)\varphi \leq \max (\alpha, \beta) holds.

Solution

Solution:

The vertices of the rhombus are named K (KAE)K\ (K \in AE), L (LAB)L\ (L \in AB), M (MBD)M\ (M \in BD) and N (NDE)N\ (N \in DE). Let d(X,YZ)d(X, YZ) denote the distance of a point XX from a line YZYZ. Because DD and EE lie on the respective angle bisectors, we have d(D,AB)=d(D,AC)d(D, AB) = d(D, AC), d(E,AB)=d(E,BC)d(E, AB) = d(E, BC) and d(D,BC)=d(E,AC)=0d(D, BC) = d(E, AC) = 0, from which d(D,AC)+d(D,BC)=d(D,AB)d(D, AC) + d(D, BC) = d(D, AB) and d(E,AC)+d(E,BC)=d(E,AB)d(E, AC) + d(E, BC) = d(E, AB) follow.

Because NN lies on the segment DEDE and because in the equation d(X,AC)+d(X,BC)=d(X,AB)d(X, AC) + d(X, BC) = d(X, AB), as XX moves along the segment DEDE, all terms change only linearly, it follows

Figure 1

from the two relations above also for NN:

d(N,AC)+d(N,BC)=d(N,AB)(1)d(N, AC) + d(N, BC) = d(N, AB) \qquad (1).

Using the notation of the figure, we have d(N,AC)=ssinμd(N, AC) = s \cdot \sin \mu and d(N,BC)=ssinvd(N, BC) = s \cdot \sin v. Because the rhombus KLMNKLMN lies entirely in one of the half-planes with respect to ABAB, we obtain from its parallelogram property

d(N,AB)=d(N,AB)+d(L,AB)=d(K,AB)+d(M,AB)=s(sinδ+sinε)d(N, AB) = d(N, AB) + d(L, AB) = d(K, AB) + d(M, AB) = s(\sin \delta + \sin \varepsilon).

With (1) it follows that sinμ+sinv=sinδ+sinε\sin \mu + \sin v = \sin \delta + \sin \varepsilon \qquad (2).

From the assumption φ>max(α,β)\varphi > \max (\alpha, \beta), because of + = CKL = +\text{+ = CKL = +}, it would directly follow that μ=αφ+δ<δ\mu = \alpha - \varphi + \delta < \delta and analogously v<εv < \varepsilon. Because KLMNKL \parallel MN, we have β=δ+v\beta = \delta + v, hence δ<β<90\delta < \beta < 90^\circ. Similarly it follows that ε<90\varepsilon < 90^\circ. Thus we obtain sinμ<sinδ\sin \mu < \sin \delta and sinv<sinε\sin v < \sin \varepsilon, in contradiction to (2). Therefore φmax(α,β)\varphi \leq \max (\alpha, \beta) holds.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from de; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.