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Saudi Arabian Mathematical Competitions

Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Pentagon ABCDEA B C D E is inscribed in a circle. Distances from point EE to lines ABA B, BCB C and CDC D are equal to aa, bb and cc, respectively. Find the distance from point EE to line ADA D.

Solution

Let KK, LL, MM and NN be the feet of perpendiculars dropped from point EE to lines ABA B, BCB C, CDC D and DAD A, respectively.

Points KK and NN lie on the circle with diameter AEA E, hence EKN^≡EAN^\widehat{E K N} \equiv \widehat{E A N}. Similarly, ELM^≡ECM^≡EAN^\widehat{E L M} \equiv \widehat{E C M} \equiv \widehat{E A N}, hence
EKN^≡ELN^. \begin{equation*} \widehat{E K N} \equiv \widehat{E L N} . \tag{1} \end{equation*}
In the same way we obtain
ENK^≡EML^. \begin{equation*} \widehat{E N K} \equiv \widehat{E M L} . \tag{2} \end{equation*}
From (1) and (2) it follows that △EKN∼△ELM\triangle E K N \sim \triangle E L M, therefore
EKEN=ELEM, hence EN=EK⋅EMEL=acb. \frac{E K}{E N}=\frac{E L}{E M}, \text{ hence } E N=\frac{E K \cdot E M}{E L}=\frac{a c}{b} .

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