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CMO, 2017

Geometry Difficulty 6.6 National Olympiad Prove it Canada

Points PP and QQ lie inside parallelogram ABCDABCD and are such that triangles ABPABP and BCQBCQ are equilateral. Prove that the line through PP perpendicular to DPDP and the line through QQ perpendicular to DQDQ meet on the altitude from BB in triangle ABCABC.

Solution

Let ∠ABC=m\angle ABC = m and let OO be the circumcenter of triangle DPQDPQ. Since PP and QQ are in the interior of ABCDABCD, it follows that m=∠ABC>60∘m = \angle ABC > 60^\circ and ∠DAB=180∘−m>60∘\angle DAB = 180^\circ - m > 60^\circ which together imply that 60∘<m<120∘60^\circ < m < 120^\circ. Now note that ∠DAP=∠DAB−60∘=120∘−m\angle DAP = \angle DAB - 60^\circ = 120^\circ - m, ∠DCQ=∠DCB−60∘=120∘−m\angle DCQ = \angle DCB - 60^\circ = 120^\circ - m and that ∠PBQ=60∘−∠ABQ=60∘−(∠ABC−60∘)=120∘−m\angle PBQ = 60^\circ - \angle ABQ = 60^\circ - (\angle ABC - 60^\circ) = 120^\circ - m. This combined with the facts that AD=BQ=CQAD = BQ = CQ and AP=BP=CDAP = BP = CD implies that triangles DAPDAP, QBPQBP and QCDQCD are congruent. Therefore DP=PQ=DQDP = PQ = DQ and triangle DPQDPQ is equilateral. This implies that ∠ODA=∠PDA+30∘=∠DQC+30∘=∠OQC\angle ODA = \angle PDA + 30^\circ = \angle DQC + 30^\circ = \angle OQC. Combining this fact with OQ=ODOQ = OD and CQ=ADCQ = AD implies that triangles ODAODA and OQCOQC are congruent. Therefore OA=OCOA = OC and, if MM is the midpoint of segment ACAC, it follows that OMOM is perpendicular to ACAC. Since ABCDABCD is a parallelogram, MM is also the midpoint of DBDB. If KK denotes the intersection of the line through PP perpendicular to DPDP and the line through QQ perpendicular to DQDQ, then KK is diametrically opposite DD on the circumcircle of DPQDPQ and OO is the midpoint of segment DKDK. This implies that OMOM is a midline of triangle DBKDBK and hence that BKBK is parallel to OMOM which is perpendicular to ACAC. Therefore KK lies on the altitude from BB in triangle ABCABC, as desired. □\square

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