Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Italy

Problem:

Let PP be a point interior to a triangle ABCABC. The lines APAP, BPBP and CPCP intersect the sides of ABCABC at AA', BB' and CC' respectively. Setting
x=APPA,y=BPPB,z=CPPC x = \frac{AP}{PA'}, \quad y = \frac{BP}{PB'}, \quad z = \frac{CP}{PC'}
prove that xyz=x+y+z+2xyz = x + y + z + 2.

Figure 1

Solution

Solution:

One easily checks that, for any nonzero real numbers a,b,ca, b, c chosen arbitrarily, setting x=a+bcx = \frac{a + b}{c}, y=b+cay = \frac{b + c}{a} and z=a+cbz = \frac{a + c}{b}, the relation to be proved becomes an algebraic identity.

To find a,b,ca, b, c proceed as follows: let DD and EE be the intersections of the line through PP parallel to ABAB with the segments ACAC and BCBC respectively. Let FF and GG be the intersections of ABAB with the lines through PP parallel to the segments ACAC and BCBC respectively, and set AF=aAF = a, FG=bFG = b, GB=cGB = c.

The triangles DECDEC and FGPFGP are similar, since they have their sides pairwise parallel, and moreover the relations DP=aDP = a, PE=cPE = c and DA=PFDA = PF hold, since AFPDAFPD and GBEPGBEP are parallelograms.

Applying Thales's theorem to the parallels GPGP and BABA', it follows that x=a+bcx = \frac{a + b}{c}, and similarly it follows that y=b+cay = \frac{b + c}{a}, by applying the same theorem to the parallels FPFP and ABAB'. Again by Thales's theorem, we have z=CDDAz = \frac{CD}{DA}, whence z=CDPF=DEFGz = \frac{CD}{PF} = \frac{DE}{FG}, using the similarity between DECDEC and FGPFGP. Hence, z=DP+PEFG=a+cbz = \frac{DP + PE}{FG} = \frac{a + c}{b}, and this concludes the proof.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.