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Slovenia — National Math Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Slovenia

Let EE and FF be the points on the sides ABAB and ADAD of a convex quadrilateral ABCDABCD, such that EFEF is parallel to BDBD. The segment CECE intersects the diagonal BDBD at GG, while the segment CFCF intersects the diagonal BDBD at HH. Prove: if AGCHAGCH is a parallelogram, then ABCDABCD is a parallelogram as well.

Solution

Denote the intersection of the lines EFEF and AGAG by II and the intersection of the lines EFEF and AHAH by JJ.
Now, EFEF is parallel to BDBD and AHAH is parallel to CECE, so the quadrilateral EGHJEGHJ is a parallelogram. Furthermore, AGAG and CFCF are parallel, so FIGHFIGH is also a parallelogram. Hence, ∣FH∣=∣IG∣|FH| = |IG|, ∣HJ∣=∣GE∣|HJ| = |GE| and ∠FHJ=∠IGE\angle FHJ = \angle IGE, which means that the triangles FHWFHW and IGEIGE are congruent. Thus, ∣FJ∣=∣IE∣|FJ| = |IE|.

Since EFEF is parallel to BDBD, there are three pairs of similar triangles: EAFEAF and BADBAD, EAIEAI and BAGBAG, JAFJAF and HADHAD. Hence, ∣EA∣∣BA∣=∣FA∣∣DA∣⋅∣EA∣∣BA∣=∣EI∣∣BG∣\frac{|EA|}{|BA|} = \frac{|FA|}{|DA|} \cdot \frac{|EA|}{|BA|} = \frac{|EI|}{|BG|} and ∣FA∣∣DA∣=∣JF∣∣DH∣\frac{|FA|}{|DA|} = \frac{|JF|}{|DH|}. We see that ∣EI∣∣BG∣=∣JF∣∣DH∣\frac{|EI|}{|BG|} = \frac{|JF|}{|DH|} and together with ∣FJ∣=∣IE∣|FJ| = |IE| this implies ∣BG∣=∣DH∣|BG| = |DH|.

Figure 1

Let SS be the midpoint of the segment ACAC. Since AGCHAGCH is a parallelogram, SS is also the midpoint of the segment GHGH. The equality ∣BG∣=∣DH∣|BG| = |DH| implies that SS is the midpoint of BDBD as well. The segments ACAC and BDBD bisect one another, so ABCDABCD is a parallelogram.

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