Olympiad Maths Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Czech Republic

Let ABCABC be an acute triangle with altitudes BDBD, CECE. Given that AEAD=BECDAE \cdot AD = BE \cdot CD, what is the smallest possible measure of BAC\angle BAC? (Patrik Bak)

Solution

We denote BAC\angle BAC by α\alpha and express lengths AEAE, ADAD, BEBE, CDCD in terms of cosα\cos \alpha and the side lengths b=ACb = AC, c=ABc = AB of triangle ABCABC. The condition rewrites as

bcosαccosα=(cbcosα)(bccosα), b \cos \alpha \cdot c \cos \alpha = (c - b \cos \alpha)(b - c \cos \alpha),
which simplifies to bc=(b2+c2)cosαbc = (b^2 + c^2) \cos \alpha. Hence
cosα=bcb2+c212, \cos \alpha = \frac{bc}{b^2 + c^2} \le \frac{1}{2},
where the last inequality is for any positive bb, cc equivalent with an obvious inequality (bc)20(b-c)^2 \ge 0 (alternatively, one can use AM-GM inequality for b2b^2 and c2c^2). We proved that angle BACBAC of any such triangle ABCABC satisfies cosBAC1/2\cos \angle BAC \le 1/2, therefore BAC60\angle BAC \ge 60^\circ. Since for equilateral triangle, the condition is clearly satisfied (in that case AE=AD=BE=CDAE = AD = BE = CD), the answer is 6060^\circ.

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