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Geometry Difficulty 8.2 Shortlist Prove it IMO

In a triangle ABCA B C, let DD and EE be the feet of the angle bisectors of angles AA and BB, respectively. A rhombus is inscribed into the quadrilateral AEDBA E D B (all vertices of the rhombus lie on different sides of AEDBA E D B). Let φ\varphi be the non-obtuse angle of the rhombus. Prove that φmax{BAC,ABC}\varphi \leqslant \max \{\angle B A C, \angle A B C\}.

Solution

Let K,L,MK, L, M, and NN be the vertices of the rhombus lying on the sides AE,ED,DBA E, E D, D B, and BAB A, respectively. Denote by d(X,YZ)d(X, Y Z) the distance from a point XX to a line YZY Z. Since DD and EE are the feet of the bisectors, we have d(D,AB)=d(D,AC),d(E,AB)=d(E,BC)d(D, A B)=d(D, A C), d(E, A B)=d(E, B C), and d(D,BC)=d(E,AC)=0d(D, B C)=d(E, A C)=0, which implies
d(D,AC)+d(D,BC)=d(D,AB) and d(E,AC)+d(E,BC)=d(E,AB). d(D, A C)+d(D, B C)=d(D, A B) \quad \text{ and } \quad d(E, A C)+d(E, B C)=d(E, A B) .
Since LL lies on the segment DED E and the relation d(X,AC)+d(X,BC)=d(X,AB)d(X, A C)+d(X, B C)=d(X, A B) is linear in XX inside the triangle, these two relations imply
d(L,AC)+d(L,BC)=d(L,AB) \begin{equation*} d(L, A C)+d(L, B C)=d(L, A B) \tag{1} \end{equation*}
Denote the angles as in the figure below, and denote a=KLa=K L. Then we have d(L,AC)=asinμd(L, A C)=a \sin \mu and d(L,BC)=asinνd(L, B C)=a \sin \nu. Since KLMNK L M N is a parallelogram lying on one side of ABA B, we get
d(L,AB)=d(L,AB)+d(N,AB)=d(K,AB)+d(M,AB)=a(sinδ+sinε) d(L, A B)=d(L, A B)+d(N, A B)=d(K, A B)+d(M, A B)=a(\sin \delta+\sin \varepsilon)
Thus the condition (1) reads
sinμ+sinν=sinδ+sinε. \begin{equation*} \sin \mu+\sin \nu=\sin \delta+\sin \varepsilon . \tag{2} \end{equation*}
Figure 1
If one of the angles α\alpha and β\beta is non-acute, then the desired inequality is trivial. So we assume that α,β<π/2\alpha, \beta<\pi / 2. It suffices to show then that ψ=NKLmax{α,β}\psi=\angle N K L \leqslant \max \{\alpha, \beta\}.
Assume, to the contrary, that ψ>max{α,β}\psi>\max \{\alpha, \beta\}. Since μ+ψ=CKN=α+δ\mu+\psi=\angle C K N=\alpha+\delta, by our assumption we obtain μ=(αψ)+δ<δ\mu=(\alpha-\psi)+\delta<\delta. Similarly, ν<ε\nu<\varepsilon. Next, since KNMLK N \| M L, we have β=δ+ν\beta=\delta+\nu, so δ<β<π/2\delta<\beta<\pi / 2. Similarly, ε<π/2\varepsilon<\pi / 2. Finally, by μ<δ<π/2\mu<\delta<\pi / 2 and ν<ε<π/2\nu<\varepsilon<\pi / 2, we obtain
sinμ<sinδ and sinν<sinε \sin \mu<\sin \delta \quad \text{ and } \quad \sin \nu<\sin \varepsilon
This contradicts (2).

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