Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Bulgaria

Given the triangle ABCABC and MM - midpoint of ABAB. Given the angles ABC=30\angle ABC = 30^\circ and BCM=105\angle BCM = 105^\circ. Prove that CMAC=BMBCCM \cdot AC = BM \cdot BC.
(Konstantin Delchev)

Solution

Let AA1AA_1 be the height from point AA in ABC\triangle ABC. Note that it lies on the continuation of BCBC, because this triangle is obtuse. The triangle AA1B\triangle AA_1B is right-angled with angle 3030^\circ. Therefore, AA1=AM=A1M=BM=xAA_1 = AM = A_1M = BM = x. Consequently, we directly find CMB=45\angle CMB = 45^\circ, A1MA=60\angle A_1MA = 60^\circ, A1MC=75\angle A_1MC = 75^\circ, MCA1=75\angle MCA_1 = 75^\circ. So MCA1\triangle MCA_1 is isosceles. Then CA1=xCA_1 = x and AA1C\triangle AA_1C is isosceles and right-angled, therefore ACA1=45\angle ACA_1 = 45^\circ and therefore ACM=30\angle ACM = 30^\circ.
We will calculate the area of ACM\triangle ACM in two different ways.

SACM=ACCM4S_{ACM} = \frac{AC \cdot CM}{4} because ACM=30\angle ACM = 30^\circ i.e. the height to ACAC is equal to MC2\frac{MC}{2}. But also MM is the middle of ABAB. So SACM=SABC2=BCAA14=BCBM4S_{ACM} = \frac{S_{ABC}}{2} = \frac{BC \cdot AA_1}{4} = \frac{BC \cdot BM}{4} and we get what we are looking for. \square

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