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Geometry Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Belarus

A point XX lies inside an isosceles right triangle ABCABC with B=90\angle B = 90^\circ.
Prove the inequality AX+BX+2CX5ABAX + BX + \sqrt{2}CX \ge \sqrt{5}AB and find all points XX for which the equality holds.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

First solution. Consider the rotation around point CC by 9090^\circ such that the images of point AA and point BB lie in the same half-plane with respect to the line CBCB (see the Fig.). Denote the images of points AA and XX by DD and YY respectively. By construction, the triangles ACDACD and CXYCXY are isosceles right triangles with right angles at vertex CC, hence AD=2AC=2ABAD = \sqrt{2}AC = 2AB and XY=2CXXY = \sqrt{2}CX. From the right triangle BADBAD one can easily find BD=5ABBD = \sqrt{5}AB. Finally, DY=AXDY = AX, since DYDY is the image of AXAX under rotation.

Figure 1

The required inequality is equivalent to AX+XY+YDBDAX+XY+YD \ge BD which is true, as the length of the polyline BXYDBXYD is greater or equal to the length of the segment BDBD. The equality holds if and only if points XX and YY lie on the segment ADAD. It is easy to see that there is only one such point. Indeed, let HH be the foot of the perpendicular from point CC to the line BDBD. Point HH is the midpoint of the hypotenuse of an isosceles right triangle CXYCXY, therefore the triangle CHXCHX is an isosceles right triangle with a right angle at vertex HH. Thus, there is exactly one such point XX, namely, the image of point CC (lying inside the triangle ABCABC) under the rotation by 9090^\circ with respect to the point HH.

Figure 1

Solution 2

Consider points A(0,1)A(0,1), B(0,0)B(0,0), C(1,0)C(1,0) and X(x,y)X(x,y) on the Cartesian plane. Then the required inequality is equivalent to:
x2+(1y)2+x2+y2+2(1x)2+y25.(1) \sqrt{x^2 + (1-y)^2} + \sqrt{x^2 + y^2} + \sqrt{2\sqrt{(1-x)^2 + y^2}} \ge \sqrt{5}. \quad (1)
Note that this equality is equivalent to
(1y)2+x2+x2+y2+(1x+y)2+(1xy)25,(2) \sqrt{(1-y)^2 + x^2} + \sqrt{x^2 + y^2} + \sqrt{(1-x+y)^2 + (1-x-y)^2} \ge \sqrt{5}, \quad (2)
since 2(1x)2+2y2=(1x+y)2+(1xy)22(1-x)^2 + 2y^2 = (1-x+y)^2 + (1-x-y)^2.
Now the equality (2) follows from a+b+ca+b+c|\vec{a}|+|\vec{b}|+|\vec{c}| \ge |\vec{a}+\vec{b}+\vec{c}| for vectors a(1y,x)\vec{a}(1-y,x), b(x,y)\vec{b}(x,y), c(1x+y,1xy)\vec{c}(1-x+y,1-x-y), and a+b+c=(2,1)\vec{a}+\vec{b}+\vec{c} = (2,1).
For any point XX the equality in (2) means that vectors a\vec{a}, b\vec{b} and c\vec{c} are collinear. Hence (1y)y=x2(1-y)y = x^2 and (1xy)x=(1x+y)y(1-x-y)x = (1-x+y)y, which leads to yy2=x2y-y^2 = x^2 and y+y2=xx2y+y^2 = x-x^2. Adding this equations we get 2y=x2y = x and after the substitution find x=2/5x = 2/5, y=1/5y = 1/5. It is easy to check that point X(2/5,1/5)X(2/5, 1/5) satisfy the conditions of the problem.

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