Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Baltic Way

The points MM and NN are chosen on the bisector ALAL of a triangle ABCABC such that ABM=ACN=23\angle ABM = \angle ACN = 23^\circ. XX is a point inside the triangle such that BX=CXBX = CX and BXC=2BML\angle BXC = 2\angle BML. Find MXN\angle MXN.

Solution

Answer: MXN=2ABM=46\angle MXN = 2\angle ABM = 46^\circ.

Let BAC=2α\angle BAC = 2\alpha. The triangles ABMABM and ACNACN are similar, therefore CNL=BML=α+23\angle CNL = \angle BML = \alpha + 23^\circ. Let KK be the midpoint of the arc BCBC of the circumcircle of the triangle ABCABC. Then KK belongs to the line ALAL and KBC=α\angle KBC = \alpha. Both XX and KK belong to the perpendicular bisector of the segment BCBC, hence BXK=12BXC=BML\angle BXK = \frac{1}{2}\angle BXC = \angle BML, so the quadrilateral BMXKBMXK is inscribed. Then

XMN=XBK=XBC+KBC=(90BML)+α=90(BMLα)=67. \angle XMN = \angle XBK = \angle XBC + \angle KBC = (90^\circ - \angle BML) + \alpha = 90^\circ - (\angle BML - \alpha) = 67^\circ.

Analogously we have CXK=12BXC=CNL\angle CXK = \frac{1}{2}\angle BXC = \angle CNL, therefore the quadrilateral CXNKCXNK is inscribed also and XNM=XCK=67\angle XNM = \angle XCK = 67^\circ. Thus, the triangle MXNMXN is equilateral and

MXN=180267=46. \angle MXN = 180^\circ - 2 \cdot 67^\circ = 46^\circ.

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