Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /32 of 74

, 2016

Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Slovenia

Let ABCABC be an acute triangle and let DD be a point in the interior of the triangle, such that BAD=DCB\angle BAD = \angle DCB and CBD=DAC\angle CBD = \angle DAC. Prove that the lines ADAD and BCBC are perpendicular.

Solution

Let EE denote the intersection of the lines ADAD and BCBC, let FF denote the intersection of BDBD and CACA and let GG denote the intersection of CDCD and ABAB. The equality BAD=DCB\angle BAD = \angle DCB implies that the triangles GADGAD and ECDECD are similar since they have two common angles. So,
GDAD=EDCD. \frac{|GD|}{|AD|} = \frac{|ED|}{|CD|}.
Similarly, the equality CBD=DAC\angle CBD = \angle DAC implies that the triangles FADFAD and EBDEBD are similar, so
Figure 1
ADFD=BDED. \frac{|AD|}{|FD|} = \frac{|BD|}{|ED|}.
If we multiply the above inequalities we get
GDFD=BDCDorGDBD=FDCD. \frac{|GD|}{|FD|} = \frac{|BD|}{|CD|} \quad \text{or} \quad \frac{|GD|}{|BD|} = \frac{|FD|}{|CD|}.
Since GDB=CDF\angle GDB = \angle CDF, we conclude that the triangles GDBGDB and FDCFDC are similar, so DBG=FCD\angle DBG = \angle FCD and DBA=ACD\angle DBA = \angle ACD. This and the assumptions of the problem imply that
BAD+CBD+DBA=12(BAC+ACB+CBA)=90, \angle BAD + \angle CBD + \angle DBA = \frac{1}{2}(\angle BAC + \angle ACB + \angle CBA) = 90^\circ,
so AEB=180(BAD+CBD+DBA)=90\angle AEB = 180^\circ - (\angle BAD + \angle CBD + \angle DBA) = 90^\circ, which is what we wanted to show.

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 reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.