Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

A lattice point is a point in the coordinate plane both of whose coordinates are integers. In ABC\triangle ABC, all three vertices are lattice points and the area of the triangle is 1/21/2. Prove that the orthocenter of ABC\triangle ABC is also a lattice point.

Solution

Solution:

Let us position our coordinate system so that AA is the origin. Let B=(a,b)B = (a, b) and C=(c,d)C = (c, d). Then the formula for the area of a triangle with given vertex coordinates gives 12=12adbc\frac{1}{2} = \frac{1}{2}|ad - bc|, i.e. adbc=±1ad - bc = \pm 1.

Let H=(x,y)H = (x, y) be the orthocenter of ABC\triangle ABC. The condition CHABCH \perp AB can be expressed in vector form as
0=ABCH=a,bxc,yd 0 = \overrightarrow{AB} \cdot \overrightarrow{CH} = \langle a, b \rangle \cdot \langle x - c, y - d \rangle
or
ax+by=ac+bd. a x + b y = a c + b d.
Similarly, the condition BHACBH \perp AC can be expressed as
cx+dy=ac+bd. c x + d y = a c + b d.
Adding dd times equation (2) to b-b times equation (3)::
(adbc)x=d(ac+bd)b(ac+bd). (a d - b c) x = d(a c + b d) - b(a c + b d).
Since adbc=±1ad - bc = \pm 1, it follows that xx is an integer. Similarly, we can prove that yy is an integer as well.

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