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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}=AIBC\{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=IDBIMB=DAC+ACDIAB=ACD\angle MID = \angle IDB - \angle IMB = \angle DAC + \angle ACD - \angle IAB = \angle ACD.
It follows that AIM=180ACB\angle AIM = 180^\circ - \angle ACB (1).
Let HH be the projection of BB onto the line ACAC. It follows that BHAB=BC2BH \le AB = \frac{BC}{2}, which shows that ACB30\angle ACB \le 30^\circ (2).
From (1) and (2) we obtain that AIM18030=150\angle AIM \ge 180^\circ - 30^\circ = 150^\circ.

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