Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it New Zealand

Problem:

Let ABCDEFABCDEF be a convex hexagon containing a point PP in its interior such that PABCPABC and PDEFPDEF are congruent rectangles with PA=BC=PD=EFPA = BC = PD = EF (and AB=PC=DE=PFAB = PC = DE = PF). Let \ell be the line through the midpoint of AFAF and the circumcentre of PCDPCD. Prove that \ell passes through PP.

Solution

Solution:

Let MM be the midpoint of AFAF and let OO be the circumcentre of triangle CPDCPD. Now construct QQ to be the point such that CPDQCPDQ is a parallelogram, and let RR be the centre of this parallelogram (i.e. RR is the intersection of PQPQ with CDCD, and also RR is the midpoint of PQPQ).

Figure 1

Note that QD=CP=FPQD = CP = FP and DP=PADP = PA and QDP=180DPC=FPA\angle QDP = 180^{\circ} - \angle DPC = \angle FPA. Therefore (by SAS) we have a pair of congruent triangles:
QDPFPA. \triangle QDP \cong \triangle FPA.
Therefore MAP=RPD\angle MAP = \angle RPD and AF=PQAF = PQ. Thus AM=12AF=12PQ=PRAM = \frac{1}{2} AF = \frac{1}{2} PQ = PR. Therefore (by SAS) we have another pair of congruent triangles:
MAPRPD. \triangle MAP \cong \triangle RPD.
Therefore APM=RDP\angle APM = \angle RDP. Let x=APMx = \angle APM so that CDP=RDP=x\angle CDP = \angle RDP = x also.

Figure 2

Since the angle subtended at the circumcentre is double the angle subtended at the circumference, we get COP=2x\angle COP = 2x (recall that OO is the circumcentre of PCD\triangle PCD). Finally we get OPC=90x\angle OPC = 90^{\circ} - x because COP\triangle COP is isosceles. Putting this all together, we get
OPM=OPC+CPA+APM=(90x)+90+x=180. \angle OPM = \angle OPC + \angle CPA + \angle APM = (90^{\circ} - x) + 90^{\circ} + x = 180^{\circ}.
Therefore OPM\angle OPM is a straight line.

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