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Danube Mathematical Competition

Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Let ABCABC be a triangle with AB<ACAB < AC, II its incenter, and MM the midpoint of the side BCBC. If IA=IMIA = IM, determine the smallest possible value of the angle AIMAIM.

Solution

Let {D}=AI∩BC\{D\} = AI \cap BC. As AB<ACAB < AC, DD lies between BB and MM and ∠ACB<∠ABC\angle ACB < \angle ABC.
We have ∠IDB=∠DAC+∠ACB<∠DAB+∠ABD=∠ADC\angle IDB = \angle DAC + \angle ACB < \angle DAB + \angle ABD = \angle ADC, therefore angle IDBIDB is acute.
Let FF and EE be the projections of II onto ABAB and BCBC, respectively. It follows that E∈(BD)⊂BME \in (BD) \subset BM. Triangles IBFIBF and IBEIBE are congruent and so are triangles IFAIFA and IEMIEM, therefore BA=BM=BC2BA = BM = \frac{BC}{2} and triangles IBAIBA and IBMIBM are congruent.

Figure 1

We have: ∠MID=∠IDB−∠IMB=∠DAC+∠ACD−∠IAB=∠ACD\angle MID = \angle IDB - \angle IMB = \angle DAC + \angle ACD - \angle IAB = \angle ACD.
It follows that ∠AIM=180∘−∠ACB\angle AIM = 180^\circ - \angle ACB (1).
Let HH be the projection of BB onto the line ACAC. It follows that BH≤AB=BC2BH \le AB = \frac{BC}{2}, which shows that ∠ACB≤30∘\angle ACB \le 30^\circ (2).
From (1) and (2) we obtain that ∠AIM≥180∘−30∘=150∘\angle AIM \ge 180^\circ - 30^\circ = 150^\circ.

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