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Belarusian Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Belarus

Points XX and YY are marked on the sides ABAB and ADAD of the convex quadrilateral ABCDABCD respectively.
Find AX:BXAX : BX if CX∥DACX \parallel DA, DX∥CBDX \parallel CB, BY∥CDBY \parallel CD, CY∥BACY \parallel BA.

Solution

Answer: (5+1)/2(\sqrt{5} + 1)/2.
Let λ=AX:BX\lambda = AX : BX be the required ratio. On one hand, by Thales' theorem
λ=AXBX=YRRB==[YR=CD, since CDYR is a parallelogram]==CDRB.(1) \begin{aligned} \lambda &= \frac{AX}{BX} = \frac{YR}{RB} = \\ &= [YR = CD, \text{ since } CDYR \text{ is a parallelogram}] = \\ &= \frac{CD}{RB}. \end{aligned} \quad (1)
Figure 1
On the other hand,
λ=AXBX=[AX=CY, since CYAX is a parallelogram]=CYBX==[BX=CP, since CPXB is a parallelogram]=CYCP==[Thales’ theorem for ∠CYB,PQ∥BC]=BYBQ==[BQ=CD, since BCDQ is a parallelogram]=BYCD=YR+BRCD==[YR=CD, since RCDY is a parallelogram]=CD+BRCD==1+BR/CD1=[see (1)]=1+1λ. \begin{aligned} \lambda &= \frac{AX}{BX} = [AX = CY, \text{ since } CYAX \text{ is a parallelogram}] = \frac{CY}{BX} = \\ &= [BX = CP, \text{ since } CPXB \text{ is a parallelogram}] = \frac{CY}{CP} = \\ &= [\text{Thales' theorem for } \angle CYB, PQ \parallel BC] = \frac{BY}{BQ} = \\ &= [BQ = CD, \text{ since } BCDQ \text{ is a parallelogram}] = \frac{BY}{CD} = \frac{YR + BR}{CD} = \\ &= [YR = CD, \text{ since } RCDY \text{ is a parallelogram}] = \frac{CD + BR}{CD} = \\ &= \frac{1 + BR/CD}{1} = [\text{see (1)}] = 1 + \frac{1}{\lambda}. \end{aligned}
So, λ=1+1λ\lambda = 1 + \frac{1}{\lambda} or λ2−λ−1=0\lambda^2 - \lambda - 1 = 0. From this quadratic equation, taking into account that λ>0\lambda > 0, we obtain λ=(5+1)/2\lambda = (\sqrt{5} + 1)/2.

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