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Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Ireland

Let ABC\triangle ABC be a triangle and let PP denote the midpoint of the side BCBC. Suppose that there exist two points MM and NN interior to the sides ABAB and ACAC respectively, such that
AD=DM=2DN, |AD| = |DM| = 2|DN|,
where DD is the intersection point of the lines MNMN and APAP. Show that
AC=BC|AC| = |BC|.

Solution

Step I: Reduce to the case when MM coincides with BB. The following provides two versions of this step:

Version 1: The line through BB parallel to MNMN intersects APAP at a point EE and ACAC at a point QQ. From the similar triangles AMDAMD and ABEABE it follows that
MDBE=ADAE \frac{|MD|}{|BE|} = \frac{|AD|}{|AE|}
and from the similar triangles ADNADN and AEQAEQ it follows that
NDQE=ADAE \frac{|ND|}{|QE|} = \frac{|AD|}{|AE|}
Thus AD=DM=2DN|AD| = |DM| = 2|DN| is equivalent to AE=EB=2EQ|AE| = |EB| = 2|EQ|.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Version 2: Let BCB'C' be a line parallel to BCBC, with B=MB' = M and CC' on ACAC. Let PP' be the intersection point of BCB'C' with APAP. From the similar triangles ABPAB'P' and ABPABP it follows that
BPBP=APAP \frac{|B'P'|}{|BP|} = \frac{|AP'|}{|AP|}
and from the similar triangles ACPAC'P' and ACPACP it follows that
CPCP=APAP \frac{|C'P'|}{|CP|} = \frac{|AP'|}{|AP|}
Thus PP is the midpoint of BCBC if and only if PP' is the midpoint of BCB'C'. Also, since the triangles ABCAB'C' and ABCABC are similar, then AC=BC|AC| = |BC| is equivalent to AC=BC|A'C'| = |B'C'|.

Step II: With the notations from Step I, Version 1, prove that QQ is the midpoint of ACAC and EE is the centroid of the triangle ABCABC. The following provides two versions of this step:

Version 1: Menelaus' theorem for BQC\triangle BQC with secant line APAP gives
QEBEBPCPCAQA=1. \frac{|QE|}{|BE|} \cdot \frac{|BP|}{|CP|} \cdot \frac{|CA|}{|QA|} = 1 .
Because BE=2QE|BE| = 2|QE| and BP=CP|BP| = |CP|, it follows that CA=2QA|CA| = 2|QA| and so QQ is the midpoint of ACAC. Hence, EE is the centroid of ABC\triangle ABC.

Version 2: Let QQ' denote the midpoint of ACAC, and let EE' be the intersection of BQBQ' with APAP. We will prove Q=QQ = Q' using proof by contradiction. Assume they are different. The triangles QPCQ'PC and ABCABC are similar since
CQAC=CPBC=12 \frac{|CQ'|}{|AC|} = \frac{|CP|}{|BC|} = \frac{1}{2}
and so AB=2PQ|AB| = 2|PQ'| and also PQPQ' is parallel to ABAB. Thus the triangles AEBAE'B and PEQPE'Q' are similar which implies
ABPQ=2=BEEQ=BEEQ \frac{|AB|}{|PQ'|} = 2 = \frac{|BE'|}{|E'Q'|} = \frac{|BE|}{|EQ|}
But this would imply that EEEE' is parallel to QQQQ' which is a contradiction, since they meet at AA.

Step III: Because EE is the centroid of ABC\triangle ABC, we have AE=2EP|AE| = 2|EP| and BE=2EQ|BE| = 2|EQ|. Because AE=2EQ|AE| = 2|EQ|, this implies AE=BE|AE| = |BE| and EQ=EP|EQ| = |EP|. Therefore, the triangles AEQAEQ and BEPBEP are congruent, thus

|BC| = 2|BP| = 2|AQ| = |AC| .

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