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Geometry Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it South Africa

Points EE and FF lie inside a square ABCDABCD such that the two triangles ABFABF and BCEBCE are equilateral. Show that DEFDEF is an equilateral triangle.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

We have FAD=BADBAF=9060=30\angle FAD = \angle BAD - \angle BAF = 90^\circ - 60^\circ = 30^\circ. Since AF=AB=ADAF = AB = AD, triangle AFDAFD is isosceles, which means that ADF=AFD=180FAD2=75\angle ADF = \angle AFD = \frac{180^\circ - \angle FAD}{2} = 75^\circ and CDF=CDAADF=9075=15\angle CDF = \angle CDA - \angle ADF = 90^\circ - 75^\circ = 15^\circ. By symmetry, we also have ADE=15\angle ADE = 15^\circ, thus EDF=90ADECDF=60\angle EDF = 90^\circ - \angle ADE - \angle CDF = 60^\circ.

Again by symmetry (with respect to the diagonal BDBD), DE=DFDE = DF, so DEFDEF is an isosceles triangle with an angle of 6060^\circ. Therefore, DEFDEF is indeed an equilateral triangle.

Solution 2

Let GG and HH be the midpoints of ABAB and CDCD respectively, and let MM be the centre of the square. We denote the side length of the square and the two equilateral triangles by aa. By Pythagoras' Theorem,
GF2=AF2AG2=a2(a2)2=3a24, GF^2 = AF^2 - AG^2 = a^2 - \left(\frac{a}{2}\right)^2 = \frac{3a^2}{4},
so GF=3a2GF = \frac{\sqrt{3}a}{2}. Next we find FH=GHGF=a3a2=(23)a2FH = GH - GF = a - \frac{\sqrt{3}a}{2} = \frac{(2-\sqrt{3})a}{2}, FM=GFGM=3a2a2=(31)a2FM = GF - GM = \frac{\sqrt{3}a}{2} - \frac{a}{2} = \frac{(\sqrt{3}-1)a}{2} and by symmetry EM=FM=(31)a2EM = FM = \frac{(\sqrt{3}-1)a}{2}.

Applying Pythagoras' Theorem again, we obtain
DF2=DH2+FH2=(a2)2+((23)a2)2=a2(14+443+34)=a2(23) DF^2 = DH^2 + FH^2 = \left(\frac{a}{2}\right)^2 + \left(\frac{(2-\sqrt{3})a}{2}\right)^2 = a^2 \left(\frac{1}{4} + \frac{4-4\sqrt{3}+3}{4}\right) = a^2(2-\sqrt{3})
and
EF2=EM2+FM2=2((31)a2)2=2a2323+14=a2(23). EF^2 = EM^2 + FM^2 = 2 \left( \frac{(\sqrt{3}-1)a}{2} \right)^2 = 2a^2 \cdot \frac{3-2\sqrt{3}+1}{4} = a^2(2-\sqrt{3}).
Thus DF=EFDF = EF, and by symmetry DE=EFDE = EF. This means that DEFDEF is an equilateral triangle.

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