Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /3 of 4

Geometry Difficulty 6.0 National olympiad Prove it Thailand

Let ABC\triangle ABC be a triangle with ABACAB \leq AC and let PP be an interior point on the angle bisector of BAC\angle BAC. Let D,ED, E be points on the segments PC,PBPC, PB respectively such that PBD=PCE\angle PBD = \angle PCE. The line BDBD meets ACAC at XX, and CECE meets ABAB at YY.
Prove that BXCYBX \leq CY.

Solution

We use Kelly's lemma

Lemma 1 (Kelly). Given a triangle ABCABC. Suppose the cevians BEBE and CFCF are such that CBEBCF\angle CBE \geq \angle BCF and ABEACF\angle ABE \geq \angle ACF. Then BECFBE \leq CF.

*Proof* (From Crux). Choose QQ on the segment AEAE so that QBE=QCF\angle QBE = \angle QCF. Let CFCF meets BE,BQBE, BQ at P,QP, Q respectively. In the triangle QBCQBC, since QBCQCB\angle QBC \geq \angle QCB, we have QCQBQC \geq QB. Observe that QBEQCR\triangle QBE \sim \triangle QCR, hence from that BQCQBQ \leq CQ we obtain BECRBE \leq CR. Clearly CRCFCR \leq CF, therefore BECFBE \leq CF. \square

Now we apply Kelly's lemma to our problem. We want to show that
DBCECBandABPACP. \angle DBC \geq \angle ECB \quad \text{and} \quad \angle ABP \geq \angle ACP.

Reflect the point CC about the line APAP to CC'. By symmetry
ABPACP=ACP. \angle ABP \geq \angle AC'P = \angle ACP.
To show that DBCECB\angle DBC \geq \angle ECB, we use sine law in the triangles ABPABP and ACPACP respectively to get
BP=APsin(A/2)sin(ABP),CP=APsin(A/2)sin(ACP). BP = AP \frac{\sin(A/2)}{\sin(\angle ABP)}, \quad CP = AP \frac{\sin(A/2)}{\sin(\angle ACP)}.
Thus BPCPBP \leq CP. In the triangle PBCPBC, since BPCPBP \leq CP, it follows that PCBPBC\angle PCB \leq \angle PBC. Therefore
DBCECB. \angle DBC \geq \angle ECB.
This proves the claim and the problem.

Figure 1

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.