Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 7.7 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Hong Kong

Given a triangle ABCABC with AB=BC=1AB = BC = 1 and CA=2CA = \sqrt{2}, PP is a point inside the triangle ABCABC such that PAB=PBC=PCA\angle PAB = \angle PBC = \angle PCA. Find BPBP.

Solution

We have BP=15BP = \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}.
Note that CBA=90\angle CBA = 90^\circ and AB=BCAB = BC. Since CBP=BAP\angle CBP = \angle BAP, the line BCBC is tangent to (ABPABP). As CBA=90\angle CBA = 90^\circ, the centre of this circle must lie on ABAB. Thus, the centre is the midpoint MM of ABAB. This implies APB=90\angle APB = 90^\circ.
Since BAP=ACP\angle BAP = \angle ACP, the line ABAB is tangent to (ACPACP). The centre DD of this circle must lie on the perpendicular line at AA to ABAB, and lie on the perpendicular

bisector of ACAC. Clearly, DD is the point such that ABCDABCD is a square. Note that MDMD is the perpendicular bisector of APAP. Thus, we have
ACP=12ADP=ADM. \angle ACP = \frac{1}{2} \angle ADP = \angle ADM.
Note that tanADM=AMAD=12\tan \angle ADM = \frac{AM}{AD} = \frac{1}{2}. It follows that
BP=ABsinBAP=15. BP = AB \sin \angle BAP = \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}.

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