Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /1 of 5

Geometry Difficulty 4.4 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

A circle is inscribed in ABC\triangle ABC that touches side BCBC at DD, side ACAC at EE, and side ABAB at FF. Show that DEF\triangle DEF must be acute.

Solution

Solution:

Since AEAE and AFAF are tangents from the same point to the same circle, we must have AE=AFAE = AF. Thus, AEF\triangle AEF is isosceles, so
AEF=AFE=180A2=9012A. \angle AEF = \angle AFE = \frac{180^\circ - \angle A}{2} = 90^\circ - \frac{1}{2} \angle A.
Now, since AEAE is a tangent to the circle, EDF=AEF=9012A\angle EDF = \angle AEF = 90^\circ - \frac{1}{2} \angle A. Thus, EDF<90\angle EDF < 90^\circ. Similarly, the other two angles must also be less than 9090^\circ, so the triangle is acute.

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.