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Geometry Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

A square ABCDABCD is inscribed in a circle with centre OO. Let EE be the midpoint of ADAD. The line CECE meets the circle again at FF. The lines FBFB and ADAD meet at HH. Prove HD=2AH|HD| = 2|AH|.

Solutions — 3

Solution 1

Because A,B,C,FA, B, C, F are on a circle, we have BFC=BAC=45\angle BFC = \angle BAC = 45^\circ. Since AFC=90\angle AFC = 90^\circ this means that FBFB is the bisector of the angle AFE\angle AFE. Because the angle bisector cuts the opposite side in a triangle at a ratio equal to the ratio of the adjacent sides (which follows easily from the Sine Theorem or by calculating areas in two different ways), we obtain
AHHE=AFFE \frac{|AH|}{|HE|} = \frac{|AF|}{|FE|}
Figure 1
Because AFE=AFC=90=EDC\angle AFE = \angle AFC = 90^\circ = \angle EDC and FEA=DEC\angle FEA = \angle DEC, the triangles AFE and CDE are similar, so that AFFE=CDDE=2\frac{|AF|}{|FE|} = \frac{|CD|}{|DE|} = 2.
We obtain now that AH=2HE|AH| = 2|HE|. As ED=AE=AH+HE=3HE|ED| = |AE| = |AH| + |HE| = 3|HE|, we finally get HD=HE+ED=4HE=2AH|HD| = |HE| + |ED| = 4|HE| = 2|AH|, as required.

Solution 2

Because A,B,C,FA, B, C, F are on a circle, we have HFE=BFC=BAC\angle HFE = \angle BFC = \angle BAC, AFH=AFB=ADB\angle AFH = \angle AFB = \angle ADB and EFD=CFD=CAD\angle EFD = \angle CFD = \angle CAD, and all these angles are equal to 4545^\circ. With the abbreviations s=sin(45)=sin(135)s = \sin(45^\circ) = \sin(135^\circ), t=sin(FHA)=sin(FHE)t = \sin(\angle FHA) = \sin(\angle FHE) and u=sin(FDE)u = \sin(\angle FDE), the Sine Theorem on the triangles AFH, HEF, EFD and ADF gives
AFt=AHs,FEt=HEs,FEu=EDs,AFu=ADs. \frac{|AF|}{t} = \frac{|AH|}{s}, \quad \frac{|FE|}{t} = \frac{|HE|}{s}, \quad \frac{|FE|}{u} = \frac{|ED|}{s}, \quad \frac{|AF|}{u} = \frac{|AD|}{s}.
From these we get
AHssHE=AFttFE=AFuuFE=ADssED=2, \frac{|AH|}{s} \cdot \frac{s}{|HE|} = \frac{|AF|}{t} \cdot \frac{t}{|FE|} = \frac{|AF|}{u} \cdot \frac{u}{|FE|} = \frac{|AD|}{s} \cdot \frac{s}{|ED|} = 2,
hence AH=2HE|AH| = 2|HE| and we conclude as in Solution 1.

Using tan(45)=1\tan(45^\circ) = 1 and the addition theorem for tan, we obtain
tan(ABF)+tan(FCD)1tan(ABF)tan(FCD)=tan(ABF+FCD)=1. \frac{\tan(\angle ABF) + \tan(\angle FCD)}{1 - \tan(\angle ABF) \tan(\angle FCD)} = \tan(\angle ABF + \angle FCD) = 1.
As tan(FCD)=EDCD=12\tan(\angle FCD) = \frac{|ED|}{|CD|} = \frac{1}{2}, we get 112tan(ABF)=12+tan(ABF)1 - \frac{1}{2}\tan(\angle ABF) = \frac{1}{2} + \tan(\angle ABF) and so
13=tan(ABF)=AHAB \frac{1}{3} = \tan(\angle ABF) = \frac{|AH|}{|AB|}
This implies 3AH=AB=AD=AH+HD3|AH| = |AB| = |AD| = |AH| + |HD| and so 2AH=HD2|AH| = |HD|.

Solution 3

Considering the power of the points EE and HH we obtain
FEEC=AEEDFHHB=AHHD. \begin{aligned} |FE| \cdot |EC| &= |AE| \cdot |ED| \\ |FH| \cdot |HB| &= |AH| \cdot |HD|. \end{aligned}
Because ADAD is parallel to BCBC we also obtain FEEC=FHHB\frac{|FE|}{|EC|} = \frac{|FH|}{|HB|}. This gives
AEEDEC2=FEEC=FHHB=AHHDHB2. \frac{|AE| \cdot |ED|}{|EC|^2} = \frac{|FE|}{|EC|} = \frac{|FH|}{|HB|} = \frac{|AH| \cdot |HD|}{|HB|^2}.
By the Theorem of Pythagoras we have
EC2=CD2+ED2andHB2=AB2+AH2. |EC|^2 = |CD|^2 + |ED|^2 \quad \text{and} \quad |HB|^2 = |AB|^2 + |AH|^2.
Writing a=AB=CD=ADa = |AB| = |CD| = |AD| as well as AH=xa|AH| = x a with 0<x<120 < x < \frac{1}{2} and using AE=ED=a/2|AE| = |ED| = a/2, we obtain
a2/45a2/4=xa(axa)a2+x2a2 \frac{a^2/4}{5a^2/4} = \frac{xa(a - xa)}{a^2 + x^2a^2}
which is equivalent to the quadratic equation 6x25x+1=06x^2 - 5x + 1 = 0. Its two roots are x=1/2x = 1/2 and x=1/3x = 1/3. As x<1/2x < 1/2 we must have x=1/3x = 1/3 and this means 3AH=AD3|AH| = |AD|. We finally obtain HD=ADAH=2AH|HD| = |AD| - |AH| = 2|AH|.

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