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Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it Belarus

Four points AA, BB, CC, DD are marked on the hyperbola y=1/xy = 1/x so that the quadrilateral ABCDABCD is a parallelogram (ABCDAB \parallel CD) and AB=2BCAB = 2 \cdot BC.
Find all possible values of the area of ABCDABCD.

Solution

Answer: 163\dfrac{16}{3}.
Let A(a;1/a)A(a; 1/a), B(b;1/b)B(b; 1/b), C(c;1/c)C(c; 1/c), D(d;1/d)D(d; 1/d) be the marked points (see Fig. 1). Since any vertical and any horizontal line meets the hyperbola y=1/xy = 1/x at most at one point we see that the numbers aa, bb, cc, dd are pairwise distinct. Since the opposite sides of the parallelogram are equal, we have
AB=CD    (ba)2+(1/b1/a)2=(dc)2+(1/d1/c)2     (ba)2(1+1(ab)2)=(dc)2(1+1(cd)2).(1) \begin{aligned} AB = CD &\iff (b-a)^2 + (1/b - 1/a)^2 = (d-c)^2 + (1/d - 1/c)^2 \ &\iff (b-a)^2 \left(1 + \frac{1}{(ab)^2}\right) = (d-c)^2 \left(1 + \frac{1}{(cd)^2}\right). \quad (1) \end{aligned}
Moreover, since opposite sides of the parallelogram are equal and parallel we see that their projections on any line are equal, in particular, their projections on OxOx-axis are equal, i.e. ba=dc|b-a| = |d-c|. Then from (1) it follows that
1+1a2b2=1+1c2d2    a2b2=c2d2. 1 + \frac{1}{a^2 b^2} = 1 + \frac{1}{c^2 d^2} \implies a^2 b^2 = c^2 d^2.
Similarly, from BC=ADBC = AD we obtain b2c2=a2d2b^2c^2 = a^2d^2. Therefore, a2=c2a^2 = c^2 and b2=d2b^2 = d^2, and so, taking into consideration aca \neq c and bdb \neq d, we obtain a=ca = -c, d=bd = -b. Without loss of generality we suppose that a<0<ba < 0 < b, and then b<cb < c. Since AB=2BCAB = 2BC we have
(b+c)2(1+1(bc)2)=(ba)2(1+1(ab)2)=AB2=(2BC)2= (b+c)^2 \left(1+\frac{1}{(bc)^2}\right) = (b-a)^2 \left(1+\frac{1}{(ab)^2}\right) = AB^2 = (2BC)^2 =
=4(cb)2(1+1(bc)2), = 4(c-b)^2 \left(1 + \frac{1}{(bc)^2}\right),
so (b+c)2=4(bc)2(b+c)^2 = 4(b-c)^2. Then b+c=2(cb)b+c = 2(c-b), so we have c=3bc = 3b.
Figure 1
Fig. 1
Figure 2
Fig. 2
Consider the pentagon B1BCC2OB_1BCC_2O (see Fig. 2). Since B1(0,1/b)B_1(0, 1/b), B2(b,0)B_2(b, 0), C1(0,1/c)C_1(0, 1/c), C2(c,0)C_2(c, 0) we have
S(B1BCC2O)=S(B1BB2O)+S(BCC2B2)=b1b+1/b+1/c2(cb)==[c=3b]=1+43b122b=73. \begin{align*} S(B_1BCC_2O) &= S(B_1BB_2O) + S(BCC_2B_2) = b \cdot \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1/b + 1/c}{2} \cdot (c-b) = \\ &= [c=3b] = 1 + \frac{4}{3b} \cdot \frac{1}{2} \cdot 2b = \frac{7}{3}. \end{align*}
On the other hand,
S(B1BCC2O)=S(OB1B)+S(OBC)+S(OCC2)==121bb+S(OBC)+121cc=1+S(OBC), \begin{align*} S(B_1BCC_2O) &= S(OB_1B) + S(OBC) + S(OCC_2) = \\ &= \frac{1}{2} \cdot \frac{1}{b} \cdot b + S(OBC) + \frac{1}{2} \cdot \frac{1}{c} \cdot c = 1 + S(OBC), \end{align*}
so S(OBC)=43S(OBC) = \frac{4}{3}. Since S(ABCD)=4S(OBC)S(ABCD) = 4S(OBC) the required area of the parallelogram ABCDABCD is equal 163\dfrac{16}{3}.

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