Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.0 National olympiad Prove it Estonia

In an isosceles right triangle ABCABC the right angle is at vertex CC. On the side ACAC points KK, LL and on the side BCBC points MM, NN are chosen so that they divide the corresponding side into three equal segments. Prove that there is exactly one point PP inside the triangle ABCABC such that KPL=MPN=45\angle KPL = \angle MPN = 45^\circ.

Solution

Figure 1
Figure 3

Without loss of generality let the points on the side ACAC be in the order AA, KK, LL, CC and on the side BCBC in the order CC, MM, NN, BB (see Fig. 3). Choose the point PP so that the quadrilateral LCMPLCMP is a square. Then KL=LC=LP|KL| = |LC| = |LP| and MN=CM=MP|MN| = |CM| = |MP|, i.e. KLPKLP and PMNPMN are isosceles right triangles, so KPL=MPN=45\angle KPL = \angle MPN = 45^\circ. Since KPN=45+90+45=180\angle KPN = 45^\circ + 90^\circ + 45^\circ = 180^\circ, the point PP lies inside the segment KNKN, whose all points except the endpoints are inside the triangle ABCABC.

To show that PP is the only point with the required properties, let PP' be an arbitrary point inside the triangle ABCABC which satisfies KPL=MPN=45\angle KP'L = \angle MP'N = 45^\circ. Since PP and PP' are on the same side of the line KLKL and KPL=KPL\angle KPL = \angle KP'L, the point PP' lies on the circumcircle of the triangle KPLKPL; similarly it also lies on the circumcircle of the triangle MPNMPN. Since KLP=PMN=90\angle KLP = \angle PMN = 90^\circ, the segments KPKP and PNPN are the diameters of the circles. Since the diameters KPKP and PNPN lie on the same straight line KNKN, they have a common perpendicular at the point PP which is tangent to both circles at this point. Hence the point PP is the only common point of these circles, i.e. P=PP' = P.

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