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Romanian Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Romania

Let VABCVABC be a regular pyramid with the base ABCABC having center OO. Denote II and HH the incenter and the orthocenter of the triangle VBCVBC and suppose that AH=3OIAH = 3OI. Find the measure of the angle made by a lateral edge of the pyramid with the plane of the base.
Mircea Fianu

Solution

Denote MM the midpoint of the edge [BC][BC]. Since triangle VBCVBC is isosceles with VB=VCVB = VC, the points VV, HH, II and MM are collinear.

From AC⊥OBAC \perp OB and AC⊥OVAC \perp OV follows AC⊥(BOV)AC \perp (BOV), hence VB⊥ACVB \perp AC, which, together with VB⊥CHVB \perp CH leads to VB⊥(ACH)VB \perp (ACH), whence AH⊥VBAH \perp VB. In the same way AH⊥VCAH \perp VC, therefore AH⊥(VBC)AH \perp (VBC), so AH⊥VMAH \perp VM.

Denote I′I' the projection of OO onto the plane (VBC)(VBC); then I′I' belongs to VMVM and OI′∥AHOI' \parallel AH. This leads to

Figure 1

OI′AH=MOMA=13, \frac{OI'}{AH} = \frac{MO}{MA} = \frac{1}{3},

hence AH=3OI′AH = 3OI'. This shows that OIOI equals the distance from OO to (VBC)(VBC), therefore I=I′I = I'.

From OI⊥(VBC)OI \perp (VBC) and II = incenter of the triangle VBCVBC follows that OO has equal distances to the lines VBVB and BCBC.

Denote JJ the projection of OO onto the line VBVB. Then OJ=OMOJ = OM, hence the right triangles OJBOJB and OMBOMB are congruent.

This leads to m(∠(VB,(ABC)))=m(∠VBO)=m(∠MBO)=30∘m(\angle (VB, (ABC))) = m(\angle VBO) = m(\angle MBO) = 30^\circ.

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