Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2014

Geometry Difficulty 6.7 National olympiad Prove it Austria

For a point PP in the interior of a triangle ABCABC, let DD be the intersection of APAP with BCBC, EE the intersection of BPBP with ACAC and FF the intersection of CPCP with ABAB.
Furthermore, let QQ and RR be the intersections of the parallel to ABAB through PP with the sides ACAC and BCBC, respectively. Likewise, let SS and TT be the intersections of the parallel to BCBC through PP with the sides ABAB and ACAC, respectively.
In a given triangle ABCABC, determine all points PP for which the triangles PRDPRD, PEQPEQ and PTEPTE have the same area.

Solution

In the following, let [XYZ][XYZ] denote the area of the triangle XYZXYZ.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Since we are only dealing with ratios of areas and parallels to the sides of the triangle, we can assume without loss of generality that ABCABC is equilateral for the following argument. (If it is not, an affine transformation will yield this case without changing the ratios involved.)
Let CXCX be the median of ABCABC through CC and assume without loss of generality that PP lies to the left of CXCX, i.e. in the interior of AXCAXC. We then have
QP<PRandQE<DR,sinceAPQ=DPRBPR=EPQ \overline{QP} < \overline{PR} \quad \text{and} \quad \overline{QE} < \overline{DR}, \quad \text{since} \quad \langle APQ = \langle DPR \rangle \langle BPR = \langle EPQ \rangle
With the angle equality EQP=DRP\langle EQP = \langle DRP \rangle, this implies
[PEQ]<[PRD]. [PEQ] < [PRD].

Equality of the areas of these two triangles therefore implies that PP lies on the median through CC.
The second equality [PQE]=[PET][PQE] = [PET] implies QE=ET\overline{QE} = \overline{ET}. Since triangles PQTPQT and BACBAC are similar (corresponding sides are parallel), triangle PQTPQT is also equilateral and PEPE is perpendicular to QTQT. It therefore follows that BEBE is perpendicular to ACAC and therefore a median in ABCABC. It follows that there is only one point with the required properties, namely the centroid of ABCABC. \square

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