Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /69 of 84

, 2014

Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Let ABCDABCD be a trapezoid with ABCDAB \parallel CD. The bisectors of CDA\angle CDA and DAB\angle DAB meet at EE, the bisectors of ABC\angle ABC and BCD\angle BCD meet at FF, the bisectors of BCD\angle BCD and CDA\angle CDA meet at GG, and the bisectors of DAB\angle DAB and ABC\angle ABC meet at HH. Quadrilaterals EABFEABF and EDCFEDCF have areas 2424 and 3636, respectively, and triangle ABHABH has area 2525. Find the area of triangle CDGCDG.

Solution

Solution:

Answer: 2567\boxed{\dfrac{256}{7}}

Let M,NM, N be the midpoints of AD,BCAD, BC respectively. Since AEAE and DEDE are bisectors of supplementary angles, the triangle AEDAED is right with right angle EE. Then EMEM is the median of a right triangle from the right angle, so triangles EMAEMA and EMDEMD are isosceles with vertex MM. But then MEA=EAM=EAB\angle MEA = \angle EAM = \angle EAB, so EMABEM \parallel AB. Similarly, FNBAFN \parallel BA. Thus, both EE and FF are on the midline of this trapezoid. Let the length of EFEF be xx. Triangle EFHEFH has area 11 and is similar to triangle ABHABH, which has area 2525, so AB=5xAB = 5x. Then, letting the heights of trapezoids EABFEABF and EDCFEDCF be hh (they are equal since EFEF is on the midline), the area of trapezoid EABFEABF is 6xh2=24\dfrac{6xh}{2} = 24. So the area of trapezoid EDCFEDCF is 36=9xh236 = \dfrac{9xh}{2}. Thus DC=8xDC = 8x. Then, triangle GEFGEF is similar to and has 164\dfrac{1}{64} times the area of triangle CDGCDG. So the area of triangle CDGCDG is 6463\dfrac{64}{63} times the area of quadrilateral EDCFEDCF, or 2567\dfrac{256}{7}.

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