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IMO Hk TST

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=12∠ADP=∠ADM. \angle ACP = \frac{1}{2} \angle ADP = \angle ADM.
Note that tan⁡∠ADM=AMAD=12\tan \angle ADM = \frac{AM}{AD} = \frac{1}{2}. It follows that
BP=ABsin⁡∠BAP=15. BP = AB \sin \angle BAP = \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}.

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