Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

In the triangle ABCA B C the angle BB is not a right angle, and AB:BC=kA B : B C = k. Let MM be the midpoint of ACA C. The lines symmetric to BMB M with respect to ABA B and BCB C intersect ACA C at DD and EE. Find BD:BEB D : B E.

Solution

Solution:

As BCB C is the angle bisector in the triangle MBEM B E, we have CEBE=CMBM\frac{C E}{B E} = \frac{C M}{B M} (by a well-known property of the angle bisector). Similarly, ADBD=AMBM\frac{A D}{B D} = \frac{A M}{B M}. Draw a line BMB M' symmetric to BMB M with respect to the angle bisector of ABCA B C (point MM' is on the line ACA C). BMB M' bisects the angle DBED B E. Using the same property of the angle bisector, we get EMBE=DMBD\frac{E M'}{B E} = \frac{D M'}{B D}. Subtracting from this CEBE=CMBM\frac{C E}{B E} = \frac{C M}{B M} we get CMBE=AMBD\frac{C M'}{B E} = \frac{A M'}{B D} or BDBE=AMCM\frac{B D}{B E} = \frac{A M'}{C M'}.

Now it remains only to find the ratio in which MM' divides ACA C. To do that, note that MBCM B C and MBAM B A have equal areas: 12BMBCsinMBC=12BMBAsinMBA\frac{1}{2} B M \cdot B C \cdot \sin \angle M B C = \frac{1}{2} B M \cdot B A \cdot \sin \angle M B A. Therefore sinMBCsinMBA=ABBC=k\frac{\sin \angle M B C}{\sin \angle M B A} = \frac{A B}{B C} = k. Hence

AMCM=SABMSBCM=12BMBAsinMBA12BMBCsinMBC=ksinMBAsinMBC=sinMBCsinMBA=kk=k2 \begin{aligned} \frac{A M'}{C M'} = \frac{S_{A B M'}}{S_{B C M'}} & = \frac{\frac{1}{2} B M' \cdot B A \cdot \sin \angle M' B A}{\frac{1}{2} B M' \cdot B C \cdot \sin \angle M' B C} \\ & = k \cdot \frac{\sin \angle M' B A}{\sin \angle M' B C} = \frac{\sin \angle M B C}{\sin \angle M B A} = k \cdot k = k^{2} \end{aligned}

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.