Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /65 of 121

Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it India

Problem:

Consider an acute triangle ABCA B C and let PP be an interior point of ABCA B C. Suppose the lines BPB P and CPC P, when produced, meet ACA C and ABA B in EE and FF respectively. Let DD be the point where APA P intersects the line segment EFE F and KK be the foot of perpendicular from DD on to BCB C. Show that DKD K bisects EKF\angle E K F.

Solution

Solution:

Produce APA P to meet BCB C in QQ. Join KEK E and KFK F. Draw perpendiculars from FF and EE on to BCB C to meet it in MM and LL respectively. Let us denote BKF\angle B K F by α\alpha and CKE\angle C K E by β\beta. We show that α=β\alpha=\beta by proving tanα=tanβ\tan \alpha=\tan \beta. This implies that DKF=DKE\angle D K F=\angle D K E. (See Figure below.)

Figure 1

Since the cevians AQA Q, BEB E and CFC F concur, we may write
BQQC=zy,CEEA=xz,AFFB=yx \frac{B Q}{Q C}=\frac{z}{y}, \quad \frac{C E}{E A}=\frac{x}{z}, \quad \frac{A F}{F B}=\frac{y}{x}
We observe that
FDDE=[AFD][AED]=[PFD][PED]=[AFP][AEP] \frac{F D}{D E}=\frac{[A F D]}{[A E D]}=\frac{[P F D]}{[P E D]}=\frac{[A F P]}{[A E P]}
However, standard computations involving bases give
[AFP]=yy+x[ABP],[AEP]=zz+x[ACP] [A F P]=\frac{y}{y+x}[A B P], \quad [A E P]=\frac{z}{z+x}[A C P]
and
[ABP]=zx+y+z[ABC],[ACP]=yx+y+z[ABC] [A B P]=\frac{z}{x+y+z}[A B C], \quad [A C P]=\frac{y}{x+y+z}[A B C]
Thus we obtain
FDDE=x+zx+y \frac{F D}{D E}=\frac{x+z}{x+y}
On the other hand
tanα=FMKM=FBsinBKM,tanβ=ELKL=ECsinCKL \tan \alpha=\frac{F M}{K M}=\frac{F B \sin B}{K M}, \quad \tan \beta=\frac{E L}{K L}=\frac{E C \sin C}{K L}
Using FB=(xx+y)ABF B=\left(\frac{x}{x+y}\right) A B, EC=(xx+z)ACE C=\left(\frac{x}{x+z}\right) A C and ABsinB=ACsinCA B \sin B=A C \sin C, we obtain
tanαtanβ=(x+zx+y)(KLKM)=(x+zx+y)(DEFD)=(x+zx+y)(x+yx+z)=1 \begin{aligned} \frac{\tan \alpha}{\tan \beta} & =\left(\frac{x+z}{x+y}\right)\left(\frac{K L}{K M}\right) \\ & =\left(\frac{x+z}{x+y}\right)\left(\frac{D E}{F D}\right) \\ & =\left(\frac{x+z}{x+y}\right)\left(\frac{x+y}{x+z}\right)=1 \end{aligned}
We conclude that α=β\alpha=\beta.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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