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Geometry Difficulty 7.5 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Canada

Problem:

1. Amy has drawn three points in a plane, AA, BB, and CC, such that AB=BC=CA=6AB = BC = CA = 6. Amy is allowed to draw a new point if it is the circumcenter of a triangle whose vertices she has already drawn. For example, she can draw the circumcenter OO of triangle ABCABC, and then afterwards she can draw the circumcenter of triangle ABOABO.

a) Prove that Amy can eventually draw a point whose distance from a previously drawn point is greater than 77.

b) Prove that Amy can eventually draw a point whose distance from a previously drawn point is greater than 20192019.

(Recall that the circumcenter of a triangle is the center of the circle that passes through its three vertices.)

Solution

Solution:

(a) Given triangle ABC\triangle ABC, Amy can draw the following points:
- OO is the circumcenter of ABC\triangle ABC
- A1A_1 is the circumcenter of BOC\triangle BOC
- A2A_2 is the circumcenter of OBA1\triangle OBA_1
- A3A_3 is the circumcenter of BA2A1\triangle BA_2A_1

We claim that AA3>7AA_3 > 7. We present two ways to prove this claim.

First Method:
By symmetry of the equilateral triangle ABC\triangle ABC, we have AOB=BOC=COA=120\angle AOB = \angle BOC = \angle COA = 120^\circ. Since OB=OCOB = OC and A1B=A1O=A1CA_1B = A_1O = A_1C, we deduce that A1OBA1OC\triangle A_1OB \cong \triangle A_1OC, and hence BOA1=COA1=60\angle BOA_1 = \angle COA_1 = 60^\circ. Therefore, since A1OB\triangle A_1OB is isosceles, it must be equilateral. As we found for our original triangle, we find BA2A1=120\angle BA_2A_1 = 120^\circ, and so A2BA1=A2A1B=30\angle A_2BA_1 = \angle A_2A_1B = 30^\circ (since A2B=A2A1A_2B = A_2A_1). Also we see that OBA2=30=OBC\angle OBA_2 = 30^\circ = \angle OBC, which shows that A2A_2 lies on the segment BCBC.

Applying the Law of Sines to BOC\triangle BOC, we obtain
OC=BCsin(OBC)sin(BOC)=6(1/2)3/2=23. OC = \frac{BC \sin(\angle OBC)}{\sin(\angle BOC)} = \frac{6(1/2)}{\sqrt{3}/2} = 2\sqrt{3}.
By symmetry, we see that (i) OA1OA_1 is the bisector of BOC\angle BOC and the perpendicular bisector of BCBC, and (ii) the three points AA, OO, and A1A_1 are collinear. Therefore A1A=A1O+OA=2OA=43A_1A = A_1O + OA = 2OA = 4\sqrt{3}.

The same argument that we used to show A1OB\triangle A_1OB is equilateral with side AC/3AC/\sqrt{3} shows that A3A2A1\triangle A_3A_2A_1 is equilateral with side OB/3=2OB/\sqrt{3} = 2. Thus A3A1O=OA1B+A3A1A2A2A1B=60+6030=90\angle A_3A_1O = \angle OA_1B + \angle A_3A_1A_2 - \angle A_2A_1B = 60^\circ + 60^\circ - 30^\circ = 90^\circ. Hence we can apply the Pythagorean Theorem:
A3A=(A3A1)2+(A1A)2=22+(43)2=52>49=7. A_3A = \sqrt{(A_3A_1)^2 + (A_1A)^2} = \sqrt{2^2 + (4\sqrt{3})^2} = \sqrt{52} > \sqrt{49} = 7.

Second Method:
(An alternative to writing the justifications of the constructions in the First Method is to use analytic geometry. Once the following coordinates are found using the kind of reasoning in the First Method or by other means, the writeup can justify them succinctly by computing distances.)

Label (0,0)(0,0) as BB, (6,0)(6,0) as CC, and (3,3)(3, \sqrt{3}) as AA. Then we have AB=BC=CA=6AB = BC = CA = 6.

The circumcenter OO of ABC\triangle ABC is (3,3)(3, \sqrt{3}); this can be verified by observing OA=OB=OC=23OA = OB = OC = 2\sqrt{3}. Next, the point A1=(3,3)A_1 = (3, -\sqrt{3}) satisfies A1O=A1B=A1C=23A_1O = A_1B = A_1C = 2\sqrt{3}, so A1A_1 is the circumcenter of BOC\triangle BOC.

The point A2=(2,0)A_2 = (2, 0) satisfies A2O=A2B=A2A1=2A_2O = A_2B = A_2A_1 = 2, so this is the circumcenter of OBA1\triangle OBA_1.

And the point A3=(1,3)A_3 = (1, -\sqrt{3}) satisfies A3B=A3A2=A3A1=2A_3B = A_3A_2 = A_3A_1 = 2, so this is the circumcenter of BA2A1\triangle BA_2A_1.

Finally, we compute A3A=52>49=7A_3A = \sqrt{52} > \sqrt{49} = 7, and part (a) is proved.

(b) In part (a), using either method we find that OA3=4>23=OAOA_3 = 4 > 2\sqrt{3} = OA. By rotating the construction of part (a) by ±120\pm 120^\circ about OO, Amy can construct B3B_3 and C3C_3 such that A3B3C3\triangle A_3B_3C_3 is equilateral with circumcenter OO and circumradius 44, which is strictly bigger than the circumradius 232\sqrt{3} of ABC\triangle ABC. Amy can repeat this process starting from A3B3C3\triangle A_3B_3C_3. After nn iterations of the process, Amy will have drawn the vertices of an equilateral triangle whose circumradius is 23(423)n2\sqrt{3}\left(\frac{4}{2\sqrt{3}}\right)^n, which is bigger than 20192019 when nn is sufficiently large.

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