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Geometry Difficulty 7.0 National olympiad Prove it Austria

A (convex) trapezoid ABCDABCD shall be called *good* if it is inscribed, has parallel sides ABAB and CDCD, and CDCD is shorter than ABAB. For a good trapezoid, we fix the following notations.
* The line parallel to ADAD through BB intersects the line CDCD in SS.
* The tangents through SS to the circumcircle of the trapezoid meet the circumcircle in EE and FF, respectively, where EE is on the same side of the line CDCD as AA.
Characterize good trapezoids ABCDABCD (in terms of the side lengths and/or angles of the trapezoid) for which the angles BSE\angle BSE and FSC\angle FSC are equal. The characterization should be as simple as possible.

Solution

Answer. The angles BSE\angle BSE and FSC\angle FSC are equal if and only if BAD=60\angle BAD = 60^\circ or AB=ADAB = AD.

We denote the circumcircle of the trapezoid by uu, the second intersection point of the line SBSB with uu by TT and the centre of uu by MM, see Figure 4. As the trapezoid is inscribed, it is isosceles. As ABSDABSD is a parallelogram by construction, we have BS=AD=BCBS = AD = BC and DS=ABDS = AB.
Figure 1
Figure 4: Problem 14, Case 1: BB between SS and TT

Consider the reflection across the line MSMS. It clearly maps EE and FF to each other and maps uu to itself. We say that the trapezoid meets the *angle condition* if BSE=FSC\angle BSE = \angle FSC.
The trapezoid meets the angle condition if and only if the reflection maps the rays SBSB and SCSC to each other. Equivalently, the intersection points of these rays with uu are mapped to each other corresponding to the order of the points on the rays.
We first consider the case that BB is between SS and TT, see Figure 4. Then the trapezoid meets the angle condition if and only if the reflection maps BB and CC to each other. Equivalently, the triangle BSCBSC is isosceles with axis of symmetry SMSM. As MM lies on the perpendicular bisector of BCBC in any case, this is equivalent to CS=BSCS = BS. As BS=BCBS = BC, this is in turn equivalent to the triangle BSCBSC being equilateral. Again by BS=BCBS = BC, this is equivalent to CSB=60\angle CSB = 60^\circ. As ABSDABSD is a parallelogram, the trapezoid meets the angle condition in this case if and only if BAD=60\angle BAD = 60^\circ.
We now consider the case that TT lies between SS and BB, see Figure 5. Then the above considerations show that the trapezoid meets the angle condition if and only if the reflection maps BB and DD to each other. Equivalently, the triangle BSDBSD is isosceles with axis of symmetry MSMS. By the same argument as in the first case, this is equivalent to SB=SDSB = SD. This is equivalent to AB=ADAB = AD.

Figure 2
Figure 5: Problem 14, Case 2: TT between SS and BB

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