Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.4 National Olympiad Prove it United States

Problem:

In a quadrilateral, the two segments connecting the midpoints of its opposite sides are equal in length. Prove that the diagonals of the quadrilateral are perpendicular. (In other words, let MM, NN, PP, and QQ be the midpoints of sides ABAB, BCBC, CDCD, and DADA in quadrilateral ABCDABCD. It is known that segments MPMP and NQNQ are equal in length. Prove that ACAC and BDBD are perpendicular.)

Solution

Solution:

We will use a well-known theorem from geometry. A midsegment in a triangle is called a segment that joins the midpoints of two of its sides.

Theorem. The midsegment in a triangle connecting two sides in a triangle is parallel to the third side and half of its length. In other words, if KK and LL are the midpoints of sides XZXZ and YZYZ of XYZ\triangle XYZ, then the midsegment KLKL is parallel to side XYXY and KLKL is half as long as XYXY.

- As a consequence, the four midpoints MM, NN, PP, and QQ in ABCDABCD in our problem form a parallelogram MNPQMNPQ. Indeed, since QPQP is parallel to ACAC (as a midsegment in ACD\triangle ACD), and MNMN is parallel to ACAC (as a midsegment in ACB\triangle ACB), it follows that QPQP and MNMN are parallel. They are also half as long as ACAC and hence equal in length. This means that quadrilateral MNPQMNPQ has parallel and equal in length opposite sides, and hence it is a parallelogram.

- From our problem we know that the diagonals QNQN and MPMP of this parallelogram MNPQMNPQ are equal in length. This means that the parallelogram is actually a rectangle (another famous theorem from geometry). So now we know that MNPQMNPQ is a rectangle, i.e., PNPN and PQPQ are perpendicular.

- As midsegments in ACD\triangle ACD and DBC\triangle DBC, QPQP and PNPN are parallel correspondingly to ACAC and DBDB. This implies that ACAC and BDBD are perpendicular to each other, completing our proof.

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