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Geometry Difficulty 6.5 National olympiad Prove it Ireland

We are given a triangle *ABC* such that BAC<90\angle BAC < 90^\circ. The point DD is on the opposite side of the line ABAB to CC such that AD=BD|AD| = |BD| and ADB=90\angle ADB = 90^\circ. Similarly, the point EE is on the opposite side of ACAC to BB such that AE=CE|AE| = |CE| and AEC=90\angle AEC = 90^\circ. The point XX is such that ADXEADXE is a parallelogram. Prove that BX=CX|BX| = |CX|.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Since ADXEADXE is a parallelogram, we have ADX=AEX\angle ADX = \angle AEX. This implies that XDB=90ADX=90AEX=CEX\angle XDB = 90^\circ - \angle ADX = 90^\circ - \angle AEX = \angle CEX. Since triangle ADBADB is isosceles and ADXEADXE is a parallelogram, we have DB=DA=XE|DB| = |DA| = |XE|. Similarly, EC=EA=XD|EC| = |EA| = |XD|. We conclude that triangles XDBXDB and CEXCEX are congruent by SAS and so BX=CX|BX| = |CX|.

Figure 1

Solution 2

First we note that DBA=DAB=ECA=EAC=45\angle DBA = \angle DAB = \angle ECA = \angle EAC = 45^\circ. Since ADXEADXE is a parallelogram, we have ADX+DAE=180\angle ADX + \angle DAE = 180^\circ. Thus
BDX=90ADX=90(180DAE)=DAE90=DAE(45+45)=DAEDABEAC=BAC. \begin{align*} \angle BDX &= 90^\circ - \angle ADX = 90^\circ - (180^\circ - \angle DAE) = \angle DAE - 90^\circ \\ &= \angle DAE - (45^\circ + 45^\circ) = \angle DAE - \angle DAB - \angle EAC \\ &= \angle BAC. \end{align*}
Next, note that ABBD=2=ACAE=ACDX\frac{|AB|}{|BD|} = \sqrt{2} = \frac{|AC|}{|AE|} = \frac{|AC|}{|DX|}. Thus BDDX=ABAC\frac{|BD|}{|DX|} = \frac{|AB|}{|AC|}.
Combining BDX=BAC\angle BDX = \angle BAC and BDDX=ABAC\frac{|BD|}{|DX|} = \frac{|AB|}{|AC|}, we deduce that triangles DBXDBX and ABCABC are similar. It follows that DBX=ABC\angle DBX = \angle ABC and so XBC=DBA=45\angle XBC = \angle DBA = 45^\circ. A similar argument shows that XCB=45\angle XCB = 45^\circ. Thus the triangle XBCXBC is isosceles, and BX=CX|BX| = |CX|.

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