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South African Mathematics Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it South Africa

△ABE\triangle ABE and △BCF\triangle BCF are equilateral triangles and ABCDABCD is a square.
Prove that △DEF\triangle DEF is an equilateral triangle.

Figure 1

Solution

First note that reflecting the figure around the line BDBD doesn't change the figure (the equilateral triangle AEBAEB reflects to the triangle CBFCBF). This means that DEDE and DFDF are symmetric about the line BDBD, which means that DF=DEDF = DE. If we can show that ∠FDE=60∘\angle FDE = 60^\circ, then triangle DEFDEF is an isosceles triangle with one 60∘60^\circ angle, which means it's equilateral.

Now, since DA=AB=AEDA = AB = AE, triangle ADEADE is isosceles. Next,
∠DAE=90∘−∠EAB=90∘−60∘=30∘ and so ∠ADE=12(180∘−∠DAE)=12(180∘−30∘)=75∘. \angle DAE = 90^\circ - \angle EAB = 90^\circ - 60^\circ = 30^\circ \text{ and so } \angle ADE = \frac{1}{2}(180^\circ - \angle DAE) = \frac{1}{2}(180^\circ - 30^\circ) = 75^\circ.
Similarly, ∠DFC=75∘\angle DFC = 75^\circ.

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