Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /107 of 169

Geometry Difficulty 7.5 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it United States

In hexagon ABCDEFABCDEF, which is nonconvex but not self-intersecting, no pair of opposite sides are parallel. The internal angles satisfy A=3D\angle A = 3\angle D, C=3F\angle C = 3\angle F, and E=3B\angle E = 3\angle B. Furthermore AB=DEAB = DE, BC=EFBC = EF, and CD=FACD = FA. Prove that diagonals AD\overline{AD}, BE\overline{BE}, and CF\overline{CF} are concurrent.

Solution

We proceed in three steps.

Step 1: We first give a recipe for constructing hexagons of this type. Let ACEACE be a triangle, with all angles less than 2π/32\pi/3. Let DD be the reflection of AA across CECE; let FF be the reflection of CC across EAEA; let BB be the reflection of EE across ACAC. Then, we have BAF=BAC+CAE+EAF=3CAE=3CDE\angle BAF = \angle BAC + \angle CAE + \angle EAF = 3\angle CAE = 3\angle CDE and the other analogous angle equalities. Also, we have AB=AE=DEAB = AE = DE and the other analogous side equalities. Thus, the hexagon satisfies the equations in the problem statement. The diagonals ADAD, BEBE, CFCF are simply the altitudes of the triangle ACEACE, so they are concurrent at the orthocenter.

Step 2: For a hexagon meeting the conditions of the problem statement, let β\beta, δ\delta, and ϕ\phi be the measures of angles BB, DD, and FF. We claim that these are sufficient to determine ABCDEFABCDEF up to scaling.
Let x=AB=DEx = AB = DE, y=BC=EFy = BC = EF, z=CD=FAz = CD = FA. Our goal is to show that these lengths are determined up to scale by the given angles. Let a,b,c,d,ea, b, c, d, e, and ff be unit vectors in the directions of the edges from AA to BB, BB to CC, CC to DD, DD to EE, EE to FF, and FF to AA, respectively. Then, we have the vector identity
x(a+d)+y(b+e)+z(c+f)=0.(1) x(a + d) + y(b + e) + z(c + f) = 0. \tag{1}
Notice now that
4(β+δ+ϕ)=A+B+C+D+E+F=4π, 4(\beta + \delta + \phi) = \angle A + \angle B + \angle C + \angle D + \angle E + \angle F = 4\pi,
so β+δ+ϕ=π\beta + \delta + \phi = \pi. Also, the fact that opposite sides are not parallel implies that π+2β=D+E+F2π\pi + 2\beta = \angle D + \angle E + \angle F \neq 2\pi, so βπ/2\beta \neq \pi/2; likewise δ,ϕπ/2\delta, \phi \neq \pi/2.
Assuming without loss of generality that the vertices of ABCDEFABCDEF are labeled in counterclockwise order and making liberal use of the identity β+δ+ϕ=π\beta+\delta+\phi = \pi, we may compute the respective orientations of vectors bb, cc, dd, ee, and ff, measured counterclockwise relative to aa modulo 2π2\pi, to be:
b:πβc:β3ϕd:2ϕe:π+2δβf:2δϕβ \begin{align*} b: & \quad \pi - \beta \\ c: & \quad -\beta - 3\phi \\ d: & \quad -2\phi \\ e: & \quad \pi + 2\delta - \beta \\ f: & \quad 2\delta - \phi - \beta \end{align*}
Now, whenever two unit vectors point in directions θ\theta and ψ\psi which do not differ by π\pi, their sum is a nonzero vector either pointing in direction (θ+ψ)/2(\theta + \psi)/2 or direction (θ+ψ)/2+π(\theta + \psi)/2 + \pi. It follows that the vectors a+d,b+ea+d, b+e, and c+fc+f are all nonzero and point in the following directions modulo π\pi:
a+d:ϕb+e:δβc+f:δ2ϕβ. \begin{align*} a+d: & -\phi \\ b+e: & \delta - \beta \\ c+f: & \delta - 2\phi - \beta. \end{align*}
Recalling that β+δ+ϕ=π\beta + \delta + \phi = \pi and β,δ,ϕπ/2\beta, \delta, \phi \neq \pi/2, we see that none of the pairwise differences between a+d,b+ea+d, b+e, and c+fc+f are multiples of π\pi. Thus, a+d,b+ea+d, b+e, and c+fc+f are nonzero vectors, no two of which are collinear. Consequently, condition (1) determines the coefficients x,y,zx, y, z uniquely up to scale, as required.

Step 3: It suffices to show that the only hexagons meeting the conditions of the problem statement are the ones constructed in Step 1. Construct a hexagon A1B1C1D1E1F1A_1B_1C_1D_1E_1F_1 by taking A1C1E1A_1C_1E_1 to be a triangle with angles β,δ\beta, \delta, and ϕ\phi and reflecting each vertex across the opposite site as in Step 1. Then, A1B1C1D1E1F1A_1B_1C_1D_1E_1F_1 satisfies the conditions of the problem statement and has B1=β,D1=δ\angle B_1 = \beta, \angle D_1 = \delta, and F1=ϕ\angle F_1 = \phi, so by Step 2 it is similar to ABCDEFABCDEF, completing the proof.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.