Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

Let ABC\triangle ABC be a right triangle with the right angle at vertex CC and let MM be the midpoint of the leg BC\overline{BC}. Prove that sin(MAB)13\sin(\angle MAB) \le \frac{1}{3}. When is the equality achieved?

Solution

Since MAB=CABCAM\angle MAB = \angle CAB - \angle CAM, according to the sine addition theorem we have
sin(MAB)=sin(CAB)cos(CAM)cos(CAB)sin(CAM). \sin(\angle MAB) = \sin(\angle CAB) \cos(\angle CAM) - \cos(\angle CAB) \sin(\angle CAM).
Figure 1
Let BC=a|BC| = a, CA=b|CA| = b, AB=c|AB| = c and AM=t|AM| = t. From right triangles ABCABC and AMCAMC we get
sin(MAB)=acbtbca/2t=ab2ct. \sin(\angle MAB) = \frac{a}{c} \cdot \frac{b}{t} - \frac{b}{c} \cdot \frac{a/2}{t} = \frac{ab}{2ct}.

Since c2=a2+b2c^2 = a^2 + b^2 and t2=a24+b2t^2 = \frac{a^2}{4} + b^2, that is equivalent to
9a2b2(a2+b2)(a2+4b2) 9a^2b^2 \le (a^2 + b^2)(a^2 + 4b^2)
i.e. (a22b2)20(a^2 - 2b^2)^2 \ge 0. Now it is clear that the given inequality holds in every right triangle. The equality is achieved when a=b2a = b\sqrt{2}.

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