Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /5 of 10

Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Italy

Let ABCDABCD be an isosceles trapezoid with longer base ABAB such that the bisector of the angle at DD passes through BB. Suppose that the bisector of the angle at AA intersects the side BCBC at the point PP. Prove that AB=APAB = AP if and only if the bisector of PAD^\widehat{PAD} passes through CC.

Solution

Solution:

Let α=DAB^=ABC^\alpha = \widehat{DAB} = \widehat{ABC} (since the trapezoid is isosceles, the two angles are equal); the condition AB=APAB = AP is equivalent to having BPA^=PBA^=α\widehat{BPA} = \widehat{PBA} = \alpha. In turn, since PAB^=α/2\widehat{PAB} = \alpha / 2 (APAP is the bisector of the angle at AA), this is equivalent to 2α+α/2=1802\alpha + \alpha / 2 = 180^\circ (sum of the interior angles in triangle BAPBAP), that is, to α=72\alpha = 72^\circ.

Let us set CDB^=BDA^=θ\widehat{CDB} = \widehat{BDA} = \theta; since the angles CDB^\widehat{CDB} and DBA^\widehat{DBA} are alternate interior angles with respect to the parallels DC,ABDC, AB cut by the transversal BDBD, we also have DBA^=θ\widehat{DBA} = \theta; hence, since the trapezoid is isosceles, we in fact also have BCA^=CAB^=θ\widehat{BCA} = \widehat{CAB} = \theta, and moreover 2θ+α=1802\theta + \alpha = 180^\circ (interior angles of triangle ABCABC), that is θ=90α/2\theta = 90^\circ - \alpha / 2.

Consequently, CAP^=CAB^PAB^=θα/2=90α\widehat{CAP} = \widehat{CAB} - \widehat{PAB} = \theta - \alpha / 2 = 90^\circ - \alpha, while DAC^=αCAB^=αθ=32α90\widehat{DAC} = \alpha - \widehat{CAB} = \alpha - \theta = \frac{3}{2}\alpha - 90^\circ.

Now, ACAC is the bisector of DAP^\widehat{DAP} if and only if DAC^=CAP^\widehat{DAC} = \widehat{CAP}, if and only if 32α90=90α\frac{3}{2}\alpha - 90^\circ = 90^\circ - \alpha, that is α=72\alpha = 72^\circ, which in turn is equivalent to the condition AB=APAB = AP as argued previously.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.