Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
Let ABCDABCD be a cyclic quadrilateral (i.e. inscribed in a circle) such that DC=AD+BCDC = AD + BC. Prove that the intersection point of the angle bisectors of angle AA and angle BB lies on CDCD.

Solution

Solution:
Let EE lie on segment CDCD so that CE=BCCE = BC. Then, DE=DCCE=ADDE = DC - CE = AD. So, BCE\triangle BCE and ADE\triangle ADE are both isosceles. Let α=DAE=AED\alpha = \angle DAE = \angle AED, and let β=CEB=EBC\beta = \angle CEB = \angle EBC. Then CDA=EDA=π2α\angle CDA = \angle EDA = \pi - 2\alpha, but since the quadrilateral is cyclic, this gives ABC=2α\angle ABC = 2\alpha. Likewise, BCD=π2β\angle BCD = \pi - 2\beta and DAB=2β\angle DAB = 2\beta.

Now, let the circumcircle of triangle ABEABE intersect line CDCD again at FF. We will assume that FF lies on the same side of EE as DD (the other case is completely analogous). Since quadrilateral ABEFABEF is cyclic, we have ABF=AEF=α=ABC/2\angle ABF = \angle AEF = \alpha = \angle ABC / 2, and FAB=πBEF=CEB=β=DAB/2\angle FAB = \pi - \angle BEF = \angle CEB = \beta = \angle DAB / 2. So FF lies on the bisectors of angles DABDAB and ABCABC, which means it is precisely the intersection point specified in the problem statement. Since FF was constructed to lie on CDCD, we are done.

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