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Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National olympiad Prove it Belarus

We say that a diagonal of a convex pentagon is *good* if it divides the pentagon into a triangle and a circumscribed quadrilateral.
Find the greatest number of good diagonals in a convex pentagon. (I. Gorodnin)

Solution

Answer: 2.

Show that any two intersecting diagonals of the pentagon cannot be good at the same time. Suppose, contrary to our claim, that there are two good intersecting diagonals. Without loss of generality, we assume that ADAD and BEBE are good diagonals of the pentagon ABCDEABCDE (see Fig. 1). Then BCDEBCDE and ACDEACDE are circumscribed quadrilaterals, therefore the sums of their opposite sides are equal. Hence,
AC+DE=AE+CDandBE+CD=BC+DE, AC + DE = AE + CD \quad \text{and} \quad BE + CD = BC + DE,
which gives
AC+BE=AE+BC.(1) AC + BE = AE + BC. \quad (1)
Let MM be the intersection point of ACAC and BEBE. Then, by the triangle inequality, we have
AC+BE=(AM+MC)+(BM+ME)==(AM+ME)+(BM+MC)>AE+BC, AC + BE = (AM + MC) + (BM + ME) = \\ = (AM + ME) + (BM + MC) > AE + BC,
contrary to (1). Similarly, the crossing diagonals ACAC and BDBD of the pentagon ABCDEABCDE cannot be good at the same time. Since there are no more than two noncrossing diagonals in the pentagon, the number of good diagonals in the pentagon is less than or equal to 2.

Figure 1
Рис. 1
Figure 2
Рис. 2

Show that there exist a pentagon with two good diagonals. We mark five points A,B,C,D,EA, B, C, D, E in the plain such that AB=AC=AD=AEAB = AC = AD = AE and BAC=CAD=DAE=α<60\angle BAC = \angle CAD = \angle DAE = \alpha < 60^\circ (see Fig. 2). Then it is evident that the triangles BAC,CAD,DAEBAC, CAD, DAE are equal. Therefore, BC=CD=DEBC = CD = DE and ABC=ACB=ACD=ADC=ADE=AED=(180α)/2=β<90\angle ABC = \angle ACB = \angle ACD = \angle ADC = \angle ADE = \angle AED = (180^\circ - \alpha)/2 = \beta < 90^\circ. The constructed pentagon is convex since, by construction, A=3α<180\angle A = 3\alpha < 180^\circ, B=E=β<90\angle B = \angle E = \beta < 90^\circ, C=D=2β<180\angle C = \angle D = 2\beta < 180^\circ. Two diagonals ACAC and ADAD are good since the quadrilaterals ACDEACDE and ABCDABCD are circumscribed quadrilaterals because AC+DE=AE+CDAC + DE = AE + CD and AB+CD=AD+BCAB + CD = AD + BC.

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