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Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Serbia

Problem:

The internal angle bisectors at vertices AA and BB of triangle ABCABC intersect the opposite sides at points DD and EE, respectively. A rhombus is inscribed in the quadrilateral ABDEABDE such that each side of the quadrilateral contains exactly one vertex of the rhombus. If BAC=α\angle BAC=\alpha and ABC=β\angle ABC=\beta, prove that at least one angle of the rhombus is not greater than max{α,β}\max\{\alpha, \beta\}.

(Dušan Đukić)

Solution

Solution:

Let KLMNKLMN be the rhombus with KABK \in AB, LBDL \in BD and NEAN \in EA. Consider the trapezoid PQRSPQRS with P,QABP, Q \in AB, PQRSPQ \parallel RS and PQR=QPS=KNM=φ\angle PQR=\angle QPS=\angle KNM=\varphi such that K,L,M,NK, L, M, N are on PQ,QR,RS,SPPQ, QR, RS, SP respectively. Suppose that φ>α,β\varphi>\alpha, \beta. Then RR and SS lie outside ABC\triangle ABC.

Since SNM=180φNMS=RML\angle SNM=180^\circ-\varphi-\angle NMS=\angle RML and LRM=MSN\angle LRM=\angle MSN, triangles LRMLRM and MSNMSN are congruent, so LR=MSLR=MS. Similarly, if QQ' is the point on ABAB such that LQB=φ\angle LQ'B=\varphi, triangles LRMLRM and KQLKQ'L are congruent, so MR=LQ=LQMR=LQ'=LQ. It follows that RQ=RL+LQ=SM+MR=RSRQ=RL+LQ=SM+MR=RS.

Figure 1

Now d(R,AB)=RQsinφ>RSsinα>d(R,AC)d(R, AB)=RQ \sin \varphi>RS \sin \alpha>d(R, AC) and analogously d(S,AB)>d(S,BC)d(S, AB)>d(S, BC), which means that points RR and SS lie above the lines ADAD and BEBE respectively (i.e., in the half-planes containing CC), from which it follows that both points lie above the line DEDE. This is impossible since segments RSRS and DEDE intersect at MM.

Second solution. The distance from point XX to line pp is denoted by d(X,p)d(X, p).

Lemma. For an arbitrary point MM on segment DEDE we have d(M,AB)=d(M,AC)+d(M,BC)d(M, AB)=d(M, AC)+d(M, BC).

Proof. If DMDE=k\frac{DM}{DE}=k, then d(M,AB)=kd(E,AB)+(1k)d(D,AB)=kd(E,BC)+(1k)d(D,AC)=d(M,BC)+d(M,AC)d(M, AB)=k d(E, AB)+(1-k) d(D, AB)=k d(E, BC)+(1-k) d(D, AC)=d(M, BC)+d(M, AC).

We use the same notation as in the first solution. Let aa be the side of the rhombus and OO its center. We have

d(M,AC)+d(M,BC)=a(sinMNC+sinMLC),иd(M,AB)=2d(O,AB)=d(L,AB)+d(N,AB)=a(sinNKA+sinLKB). \begin{aligned} d(M, AC)+d(M, BC) & =a(\sin \angle MNC+\sin \angle MLC), \\ \text{и}\quad d(M, AB) & =2 d(O, AB)=d(L, AB)+d(N, AB) \\ & =a(\sin \angle NKA+\sin \angle LKB) . \end{aligned}

However, if φ>α,β\varphi>\alpha, \beta, then NKA=MNC+φα>MNC\angle NKA=\angle MNC+\varphi-\alpha>\angle MNC and analogously LKB>MLC\angle LKB>\angle MLC, so from the equations above it follows that d(M,AB)>d(M,AC)+d(M,BC)d(M, AB)>d(M, AC)+d(M, BC), a contradiction.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from sr; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.