Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it Serbia

Problem:

Let ABCDEABCDE be a convex pentagon in which AB=1AB=1, BAE=ABC=120\angle BAE=\angle ABC=120^\circ, CDE=60\angle CDE=60^\circ and ADB=30\angle ADB=30^\circ. Prove that the area of the pentagon ABCDEABCDE is less than 3\sqrt{3}.

(Miloš Milosavljević)

Solution

Solution:

Let kk be the circle circumscribed about triangle ABDABD, and let ll be the line through DD parallel to ABAB. The radius of the circle kk is 11. The rays BCBC and AEAE intersect kk at points HH and II, and the line ll at FF and GG, respectively. Triangles FCDFCD and GDEGDE are similar because CFD=DGE=60\angle CFD=\angle DGE=60^\circ and FCD=120CDF=GDE\angle FCD=120^\circ-\angle CDF=\angle GDE. Let us denote by k=FCGD=FDGEk=\frac{FC}{GD}=\frac{FD}{GE} the ratio of similarity, by hh the distance from the point DD to HIHI, and x=FDx=FD, y=GDy=GD. It is easy to find that x+y=2+23hx+y=2+\frac{2}{\sqrt{3}} h and xy=43h2+23hxy=\frac{4}{3} h^2+\frac{2}{\sqrt{3}} h (the product xyxy is the power of the point FF with respect to kk and is equal to OF21OF^2-1, where OO is the center of the circle kk). Thus we obtain
PABFG=12(1+x+y)(32+h)=13h2+2h+334PFCD+PGDE=12(xFC+yGE)sin60=34xy(k+1k)32xy=23h2+h \begin{aligned} & P_{ABFG}=\frac{1}{2}(1+x+y)\left(\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}+h\right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}} h^2+2h+\frac{3\sqrt{3}}{4} \\ & P_{FCD}+P_{GDE}=\frac{1}{2}(x \cdot FC+y \cdot GE) \sin 60^\circ=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{4} xy\left(k+\frac{1}{k}\right) \geq \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} xy=\frac{2}{\sqrt{3}} h^2+h \end{aligned}
so that
PABCDE=PABFG(PFCD+PGDE)13h2+h+334=f(h) P_{ABCDE}=P_{ABFG}-(P_{FCD}+P_{GDE}) \leq -\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}} h^2+h+\frac{3\sqrt{3}}{4}=f(h)
The quadratic function f(h)f(h) attains its maximum for h=32h=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}, which proves that PABCDE3P_{ABCDE} \leq \sqrt{3}. Equality would hold only if h=32h=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} and k=1k=1; then (if without loss of generality we assume DADBDA \geq DB) the point DD would be symmetric to the point BB with respect to HIHI, so triangle ADGADG would be equilateral and FC=GD=GA=FBFC=GD=GA=FB, which is impossible because then BB and CC would coincide. Therefore the above inequality is strict.

Figure 1

Second solution.

Assume that triangle ABDABD is not obtuse. Then the points CC' and EE' symmetric to the points CC and EE with respect to the lines BDBD and ADAD respectively lie inside triangle ABDABD, on the same line through DD, and it holds that
SABCDE=SABD+SADE+SBDC=SABD+SADE+SBDC2SABDSABFS_{ABCDE}=S_{ABD}+S_{ADE}+S_{BDC}=S_{ABD}+S_{ADE'}+S_{BDC'} \leq 2S_{ABD}-S_{ABF}, where FF is the intersection point of the lines AEAE' and BCBC'. Equality holds if and only if FCEF \equiv C' \equiv E'. Let us denote BAD=α\angle BAD=\alpha. Then ABD=150α\angle ABD=150^\circ-\alpha, BAF=2α120\angle BAF=2\alpha-120^\circ, ABF=1802α\angle ABF=180^\circ-2\alpha, so it holds that
SABD=sinαsin(150α)=34+12cos(1502α)=34+12uSABF=13sin(2α120)sin2α=312+36cos(3004α)=34+13u2 \begin{aligned} & S_{ABD}=\sin \alpha \sin (150^\circ-\alpha)=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}+\frac{1}{2} \cos (150^\circ-2\alpha)=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}+\frac{1}{2}u \\ & S_{ABF}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}} \sin (2\alpha-120^\circ) \sin 2\alpha=-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{12}+\frac{\sqrt{3}}{6} \cos (300^\circ-4\alpha)=-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{4}+\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}u^2 \end{aligned}
where cos(1502α)=u\cos (150^\circ-2\alpha)=u and from this cos(3004α)=2u21\cos (300^\circ-4\alpha)=2u^2-1. Now we have
SABCDE2SABDSABF=334+uu233 S_{ABCDE} \leq 2S_{ABD}-S_{ABF}=\frac{3\sqrt{3}}{4}+u-\frac{u^2}{\sqrt{3}} \leq \sqrt{3}
with equality that would hold for u=32u=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}, i.e. α{60,90}\alpha \in \{60^\circ, 90^\circ\}, and FCEF \equiv C' \equiv E', but is never attained because for these values of α\alpha the point FF is located at the vertex of the right angle, so the pentagon is degenerate.

In the case of an obtuse triangle ABDABD, with the same notation, the point FF is located outside triangle ABDABD, but the above expression for the area of ABF\triangle ABF takes negative values, so again we obtain SABCDE334+uu23<3S_{ABCDE} \leq \frac{3\sqrt{3}}{4}+u-\frac{u^2}{\sqrt{3}}<\sqrt{3}.

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