Let be a regular pyramid with the base having center . Denote and the incenter and the orthocenter of the triangle and suppose that . Find the measure of the angle made by a lateral edge of the pyramid with the plane of the base.
Mircea Fianu
Solution
Denote the midpoint of the edge . Since triangle is isosceles with , the points , , and are collinear.
From and follows , hence , which, together with leads to , whence . In the same way , therefore , so .
Denote the projection of onto the plane ; then belongs to and . This leads to

hence . This shows that equals the distance from to , therefore .
From and = incenter of the triangle follows that has equal distances to the lines and .
Denote the projection of onto the line . Then , hence the right triangles and are congruent.
This leads to .
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