Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

Let AA and BB be such points of the circle with centre OO that the triangle AOBAOB is right-angled. The perpendicular bisector of the segment AOAO intersects the shorter arc ABAB in point KK. The lines KOKO and ABAB intersect in point LL. Prove that the triangle KBLKBL is isosceles.

Solution

Figure 1
Fig. 4

Since KK lies on the perpendicular bisector of the segment AOAO (Fig. 4) we have KA=KOKA = KO. On the other hand KO=AOKO = AO since KK and AA are points on the circle. Hence AKOAKO is an equilateral triangle from which we obtain that AOK=60\angle AOK = 60^\circ. Hence KOB=AOBAOK=9060=30\angle KOB = \angle AOB - \angle AOK = 90^\circ - 60^\circ = 30^\circ. As also BB lies on the same circle we have KO=BOKO = BO, hence BKO=180KOB2=180302=75\angle BKO = \frac{180^\circ - \angle KOB}{2} = \frac{180^\circ - 30^\circ}{2} = 75^\circ. Finally from the equality AO=BOAO = BO we obtain ABO=180AOB2=902=45\angle ABO = \frac{180^\circ - \angle AOB}{2} = \frac{90^\circ}{2} = 45^\circ. Hence BLK=LOB+LBO=30+45=75\angle BLK = \angle LOB + \angle LBO = 30^\circ + 45^\circ = 75^\circ. The triangle KBLKBL is isosceles as it has two equal angles.

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