Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

Let ABCDABCD be a parallelogram. Suppose that the circumcenter of ABC\triangle ABC lies on diagonal BDBD. Prove that ABCDABCD is either a rectangle or a rhombus (or both).

Solution

Solution:

To get a conclusion of the appropriate type (a rectangle OR a rhombus), we must divide up the problem into two cases. Here is one way of accomplishing this:

Case 1. The circumcenter OO of ABCABC is the center of ABCDABCD, the common midpoint of diagonals ACAC and BDBD. Then since radii OAOA and OBOB are equal, we get AC=2OA=2OB=BDAC = 2OA = 2OB = BD. Thus ABCDABCD is a parallelogram whose diagonals are congruent, i.e. a rectangle.

Case 2. The circumcenter OO of ABCABC does not coincide with the midpoint MM of ACAC and BDBD. Then since OO is on the perpendicular bisector of ACAC, we have OMACOM \perp AC. But OO and MM are both on line BDBD, so BDACBD \perp AC. Thus ABCDABCD is a parallelogram whose diagonals are perpendicular, i.e. a rhombus.

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