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Geometry Difficulty 6.9 National olympiad Prove it Ukraine

Let SHSH be an altitude in a tetrahedron SABCSABC and HH be inside the base ABCABC. A point OO on SHSH is chosen so that AOS+α=BOS+β=COS+γ=180\angle AOS + \alpha = \angle BOS + \beta = \angle COS + \gamma = 180^\circ, where α,β,γ\alpha, \beta, \gamma are the dihedral angles corresponding to the edges BC,AC,ABBC, AC, AB respectively. Let A1,B1,C1A_1, B_1, C_1 be the points of intersection of the following lines and planes: A1=AOSBCA_1 = AO \cap SBC, B1=BOSACB_1 = BO \cap SAC, C1=COSBAC_1 = CO \cap SBA. If the planes ABCABC and A1B1C1A_1B_1C_1 are parallel to each other, prove that SA=SB=SCSA = SB = SC.

Solution

Let A2A_2 be a projection of the point HH onto the edge BCBC. Then AOS=180HA2S=180α\angle AOS = 180^\circ - \angle HA_2S = 180^\circ - \alpha, and so AOH=α\angle AOH = \alpha. This implies that AOHSA2HAHSH=OHHA2AHHA2=OHSH\triangle AOH \sim \triangle SA_2H \Rightarrow \frac{AH}{SH} = \frac{OH}{HA_2} \Rightarrow AH \cdot HA_2 = OH \cdot SH. (fig. 43).

Analogously, BHHB2=CHHC2=OHSHBH \cdot HB_2 = CH \cdot HC_2 = OH \cdot SH. We will next prove that HH is the orthocenter of ABC\triangle ABC. Since AHHC2=CHHA2\frac{AH}{HC_2} = \frac{CH}{HA_2} we have that sinHAC2=sinHCA2\sin \angle HAC_2 = \sin \angle HCA_2. In view of the fact that HAC2+HCA2<180\angle HAC_2 + \angle HCA_2 < 180^\circ this implies that HAB=HCB\angle HAB = \angle HCB, from which AHC2=CHA2\angle AHC_2 = \angle CHA_2. Similarly we obtain that AHB2=BHA2\angle AHB_2 = \angle BHA_2 and BHC2=CHB2\angle BHC_2 = \angle CHB_2. From this it easily follows that HAB=HCB=90B\angle HAB = \angle HCB = 90^\circ - \angle B, which implies that HH belongs to the altitude of ABC\triangle ABC starting at AA. Analogously, HH belongs to the other two altitudes of ABC\triangle ABC. So, we see that the projection HH of the point SS onto the base of the tetrahedron is the orthocenter of the base, and the line segments AA2,BB2AA_2, BB_2 and CC2CC_2 are the altitudes of the base (fig. 44).

Consider the ASA2\triangle ASA_2 (see fig. 45). Since AOHSA2H\triangle AOH \sim \triangle SA_2H, we have that AA1SA2AA_1 \perp SA_2.

Figure 1
Fig. 44

So the lines SA2SA_2 and AA2AA_2 are both perpendicular to the line BCBC, which means that the whole plane ASA2ASA_2 is perpendicular to BCBC. This implies that AOBCAO \perp BC. Similarly, in the plane SBCSBC we have two non-parallel lines BCBC and SA2SA_2 that are perpendicular to AOAO, and so AOSBCAO \perp SBC. Analogously, BOSAC,COSBABO \perp SAC, CO \perp SBA.

Now, since ABCA1B1C1ABC \parallel A_1B_1C_1, we have that ABA1B1AB \parallel A_1B_1, and so the triangles AOBAOB and A1OB1A_1OB_1 are similar. It follows that OA1AO=OB1BO=t\frac{OA_1}{AO} = \frac{OB_1}{BO} = t. Also we have that OA1=SOsinOSA1OA_1 = SO \sin \angle OSA_1 and OH=AOsinOAH=AOsinOSA1OH = AO \sin \angle OAH = AO \sin \angle OSA_1. This implies that OA1OA=SOOHOA_1 \cdot OA = SO \cdot OH. Analogously we can obtain that SOOH=OAOA1=OBOB1=OCOC1SOOH=tOA2=tOB2=tOC2SO \cdot OH = OA \cdot OA_1 = OB \cdot OB_1 = OC \cdot OC_1 \Rightarrow SO \cdot OH = t \cdot OA^2 = t \cdot OB^2 = t \cdot OC^2.

It follows that OA=OB=OCAH=BH=CHOA = OB = OC \Rightarrow AH = BH = CH and finally that SA=SB=SCSA = SB = SC.

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