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Romanian Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Prove that a regular quadrilateral pyramid has two opposite lateral faces perpendicular if and only if the angle of two consecutive lateral faces has measure 120∘120^\circ.

Solution

Let ABCDABCD be the base of the pyramid, VV its apex, VOVO its altitude and MM, NN the midpoints of the edges ADAD, respectively BCBC. Denote aa the length of the edge ABAB. Faces VADVAD and VBCVBC are perpendicular if and only if the triangle VMNVMN is right and isosceles, with sides VM=VN=a22VM = VN = \frac{a\sqrt{2}}{2}.

If PP is the foot of the perpendicular from AA on VBVB (same as the foot of the perpendicular from CC on VBVB), then, computing in two ways the area of the triangle VBCVBC yields the equivalent condition PC=PA=a63PC = PA = \frac{a\sqrt{6}}{3}.

This is equivalent with sin⁡OPC^=3/2\sin \widehat{OPC} = \sqrt{3}/2, that is m(OPC^)=60∘m(\widehat{OPC}) = 60^\circ.

Figure 1

Since ∠APC\angle APC represents the angle of two consecutive lateral faces, this finishes the proof.

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