Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / UkraineMO /28 of 57

UkraineMO

Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Ukraine

Let △ABC\triangle ABC be an acute angled triangle and ∠ACB=60∘\angle ACB = 60^\circ. Let BLBL be a bisector line and BHBH be an altitude. Let LDLD be a perpendicular from LL on the side BCBC. Determine the angles of △ABC\triangle ABC in case if AB∥HDAB \parallel HD.

Figure 1

Solution

Firstly, we consider the case when point LL belongs to the segment AHAH (fig. 21). Since ∠LHB=∠LDB=90∘\angle LHB = \angle LDB = 90^\circ, then BLHDBLHD is cyclic quadrilateral. Thus, ∠LBD=∠DHC\angle LBD = \angle DHC. On the other hand ∠LBD=∠LBA\angle LBD = \angle LBA, due to the fact that BLBL is a bisector and ∠DHC=∠BAC\angle DHC = \angle BAC, because AB∥HDAB \parallel HD. It follows that ∠ABC=2∠BAC\angle ABC = 2\angle BAC and ∠ABC+∠BAC=180∘−60∘=120∘\angle ABC + \angle BAC = 180^\circ - 60^\circ = 120^\circ. And we get ∠BAC=40∘\angle BAC = 40^\circ as ∠ABC=80∘\angle ABC = 80^\circ.

Figure 2

We point out that ∠LBD=∠DHL\angle LBD = \angle DHL and again ∠LBD=∠LBA\angle LBD = \angle LBA, due to the fact that BLBL is a bisector of the triangle and ∠DHL=∠BAC\angle DHL = \angle BAC since AB∥HDAB \parallel HD. Similarly we get ∠BAC=40∘\angle BAC = 40^\circ and ∠ABC=80∘\angle ABC = 80^\circ. But, if ∠ACB=60∘>∠BAC=40∘\angle ACB = 60^\circ > \angle BAC = 40^\circ then the point HH can not belong to the segment ALAL. Thus, this case is impossible.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.