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Geometry Difficulty 6.4 National olympiad Prove it Thailand

Let ABCDABCD be a convex quadrilateral with ACBDAC \perp BD. Prove that there exist points P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S on the sides AB,BC,CD,DAAB, BC, CD, DA, respectively, such that PRQSPR \perp QS and the area of quadrilateral PQRSPQRS is exactly half that of ABCDABCD.

Solution

Solution:
Denote the area of Γ\Gamma by [Γ][\Gamma]. Let EE be the intersection of ACAC and BDBD. From any point PP' on ABAB, we construct points Q,R,SQ', R', S' as follows:
Let the line PEP'E intersect CDCD at RR'. Let \ell be the line perpendicular to PRP'R' at EE. Let \ell intersect BC,DABC, DA at Q,SQ', S' respectively.

Define a continuous function ff from a point PP' on ABAB to the interval [0,1][0, 1] by f(P)=[PQRS][ABCD]f(P') = \frac{[P'Q'R'S']}{[ABCD]} where Q,R,SQ', R', S' are constructed as above.

We see that f(A)=f(B)=1f(A) = f(B) = 1. If we can find a point PP' on ABAB such that f(P)12f(P') \le \frac{1}{2}, then by continuity there exists a point PP on ABAB such that f(P)=12f(P) = \frac{1}{2}. Then the construction above will yield the points P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S as required.

Next, we prove that f(P)12f(P') \le \frac{1}{2} if EPEP' bisects AEB\angle AEB. We see that, in such case, EQ,ER,ESEQ', ER', ES' bisect BEC,CED,DEA\angle BEC, \angle CED, \angle DEA respectively.

Figure 1

Let a,b,ca, b, c be the lengths of EA,EB,ECEA, EB, EC respectively. We have that the lengths of EP,EQEP', EQ' are 2aba+b\frac{\sqrt{2ab}}{a+b}, 2bcb+c\frac{\sqrt{2bc}}{b+c} respectively. It follows from the AM-GM inequality that
(a+b)(b+c)(ab+bc)8abbcabbc=8abbc, (a+b)(b+c)(ab+bc) \ge 8\sqrt{ab}\sqrt{bc}\sqrt{ab \cdot bc} \\ = 8ab \cdot bc,
or
[ABC]=12(ab+bc)4aba+bbcb+c=4[EPQ] \begin{aligned} [ABC] &= \frac{1}{2}(ab + bc) \\ &\ge 4\frac{ab}{a+b}\frac{bc}{b+c} = 4[EP'Q'] \end{aligned}
Similarly,
[ABCD]=12([ABC]+[BCD]+[CDA]+[DAB])12(4[EPQ]+4[EQR]+4[ERS]+4[ESP])=2[PQRS] \begin{aligned} [ABCD] &= \frac{1}{2}([ABC] + [BCD] + [CDA] + [DAB]) \\ &\ge \frac{1}{2}(4[EP'Q'] + 4[EQ'R'] + 4[ER'S'] + 4[ES'P']) \\ &= 2[P'Q'R'S'] \end{aligned}
So, f(P)12f(P') \le \frac{1}{2} as required.

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