Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it United States

Problem:

Let ABCA B C be a right triangle with right angle at BB. Let ACDEA C D E be a square drawn exterior to triangle ABCA B C. If MM is the center of this square, find the measure of MBC\angle M B C.

Solution

Solution:

Figure 1
Note that triangle MCAM C A is a right isosceles triangle with ACM=90\angle A C M=90^{\circ} and MAC=45\angle M A C=45^{\circ}. Since ABC=90\angle A B C=90^{\circ}, there is a circle kk with diameter ACA C which also passes through points BB and CC. As inscribed angles, MAC=ABC\angle M A C=\angle A B C, thus the measure of MBC=45\angle M B C=45^{\circ}.

Solution 2: Place 3 copies of triangle ABCA B C on the square as shown below.
Figure 2
Clearly the new diagram is a large square (which can be proven easily by looking at the angles of the copies of the triangle). The diagonals of this large square meet at MM. By symmetry, MBC=45\angle M B C=45^{\circ}.

Solution 3: Place triangle ABCA B C on coordinate axes so that A=(0,2c),B=(0,0),C=(2a,0)A=(0,2 c), B=(0,0), C=(2 a, 0). Let NN be the midpoint of hypotenuse ACA C and draw line \ell through NN parallel to BCB C which meets ABA B at FF. Drop a perpendicular from MM to BCB C which meets \ell at GG. It is evident that triangles AFNA F N and NGMN G M are congruent.
Thus NG=AF=cN G=A F=c and MG=FN=aM G=F N=a. Consequently, the coordinates of MM are (a,c)+(c,a)=(a+c,a+c)(a, c)+(c, a)=(a+c, a+c), so the line from MM to the origin (at BB) has a slope of 1.

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