Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it Austria

We are given an equilateral triangle ABCABC with sides of length 22. We consider all equilateral triangles PQRPQR with sides of length 11 satisfying the following properties:
* PP lies on the side ABAB,
* QQ lies on the side ACAC and
* RR lies in the interior or on the edge of the triangle ABCABC,
Describe the set of all points in the triangle ABCABC that are centroids of such triangles PQRPQR.

Solution

Let PP and QQ be given fulfilling the conditions of the problem. Considering the circumcircle kk of APQAPQ, we note that the centroid SS of APQAPQ must lie on kk, since both PAQ=60\angle PAQ = 60^\circ and PSQ=120\angle PSQ = 120^\circ hold. Since SQ=SP|SQ| = |SP|, the arcs SQSQ and SPSP are of equal length, and we therefore have SAP=SAQ=30\angle SAP = \angle SAQ = 30^\circ. All centroids SS therefore lie on the angle bisector wαw_{\alpha} of BAC\angle BAC. The most extreme positions of SS are assumed when PP coincides with AA or the mid-point MABM_{AB} of ABAB. In the latter case, SS is also the centroid, i.e. the mid-point, of ABCABC. In the former, SS is the centroid of the triangle AMABMACAM_{AB}M_{AC} (where MACM_{AC} is the mid-point of ACAC). The set of all centroids of triangles PQRPQR fulfilling all requirements is therefore the middle third of the bisector wαw_{\alpha} (which is also the altitude in ABCABC).

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