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Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National olympiad Prove it Brazil

Given a triangle ABCABC and a point P0P_0 on the side ABAB. Construct points PiP_i, QiQ_i, RiR_i as follows: QiQ_i is the foot of the perpendicular from PiP_i to BCBC, RiR_i is the foot of the perpendicular from QiQ_i to ACAC and PiP_i is the foot of the perpendicular from Ri1R_{i-1} to ABAB. Show that the points PiP_i converge to a point PP on ABAB and show how to construct PP.

Solution

It is clear from the diagram that
QnQn+1=PnPn+1cosB Q_n Q_{n+1} = P_n P_{n+1} \cos \angle B
RnRn+1=QnQn+1cosC R_n R_{n+1} = Q_n Q_{n+1} \cos \angle C
PnPn+1=Rn1RncosA P_n P_{n+1} = R_{n-1} R_n \cos \angle A
Hence PnPn+1=knP0P1P_n P_{n+1} = k^n P_0 P_1, where k=cosAcosBcosC<1|k| = |\cos A \cos B \cos C| < 1. If we take the direction AA to BB as positive, then the signed distance PnPn+1P_n P_{n+1} may be positive or negative, but the series 1+k+k2+k3+1 + |k| + |k|^2 + |k|^3 + \cdots converges to 11k\frac{1}{1-|k|}, so P0P1+P1P2+P2P3+P_0 P_1 + P_1 P_2 + P_2 P_3 + \cdots is absolutely convergent and hence convergent. So the points PiP_i converge to a point PP on the line ABAB.

Figure 1
Take any point PP' on ABAB. Take QQ' as the foot of the perpendicular from PP' to BCBC. Now take RR' as the intersection of the lines through PP' perpendicular to ABAB and through QQ' perpendicular to ACAC. Now PQRP'Q'R' is similar to the desired triangle PQRPQR. Since B,P,PB, P', P are collinear and B,Q,QB, Q', Q are collinear, it follows that B,R,RB, R', R must be collinear. Thus extend BRBR' to meet ACAC at

RR. It is now straightforward to construct QQ, then PP.

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