Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.9 National Olympiad Prove it Japan

Suppose DD, EE are points on the sides ABAB, ACAC, respectively, of a triangle ABCABC, and the following are known: AB=6AB = 6, AC=9AC = 9, AD=4AD = 4, AE=6AE = 6. Suppose, furthermore, the circum-circle of the triangle ADEADE intersects the side BCBC at two points FF, GG and the points BB, FF, GG, CC are lined up in this order. If the point of intersection of the lines DFDF and EGEG lies on the circum-circle of the triangle ABCABC, find the value of FGBC\frac{FG}{BC}. Here XYXY denotes the length of the line segment XYXY as well.

Solution

3+336 \frac{-3 + \sqrt{33}}{6}
Let HH be the point of intersection of the lines DFDF and EGEG, and let II', II be the point of intersection of the lines AHAH and DEDE, BCBC, respectively. Let HH' be the point of intersection, different from AA, of the circum-circle of the triangle ADEADE and the line AHAH. Let xx be the answer to the problem we seek. Then, we have FG:BC=x:1FG : BC = x : 1. From AD:AB=AE:ACAD : AB = AE : AC it follows that DE//BCDE // BC, and we get IF:IG=ID:IE=IB:ICIF : IG = I'D : I'E = IB : IC. Consequently, we have
IF:IB=IG:IC=FG:BC=x:1and henceIFIG:IBIC=x2:1. IF : IB = IG : IC = FG : BC = x : 1 \quad \text{and hence} \quad IF \cdot IG : IB \cdot IC = x^2 : 1.
By the theorem on the power of a point with respect a circle, we have IAIH=IFIGIA \cdot IH' = IF \cdot IG, IAIH=IBICIA \cdot IH = IB \cdot IC. Combining with the result above, we conclude that IH:IH=x2:1IH' : IH = x^2 : 1.
If we consider the similarity map which expands the triangle ADEADE into the triangle ABCABC with the similarity ratio 3/23/2, we see that the point HH' is mapped onto the point HH under this similarity mapping. Since II' is mapped onto II under this similarity map, we get AH:AH=AI:AI=2:3AH' : AH = AI' : AI = 2 : 3. Combining this with the fact IH:IH=x2:1IH' : IH = x^2 : 1, we obtain
AI:II:IH:HH=46x2:23x2:3x2:33x2. AI' : I'I : IH' : H'H = 4 - 6x^2 : 2 - 3x^2 : 3x^2 : 3 - 3x^2.
Consequently, we obtain FG:DE=HI:HI=3:53x2FG : DE = HI : HI' = 3 : 5 - 3x^2 and combining this with DE:BC=2:3DE : BC = 2 : 3, we obtain FG:BC=2:53x2FG : BC = 2 : 5 - 3x^2. Since FG:BC=x:1FG : BC = x : 1, we obtain 3x35x2+2=03x^3 - 5x^2 + 2 = 0. From the fact that BFB \neq F, we have x1x \neq 1, so from 3x35x+2=(x1)(3x2+3x2)3x^3 - 5x + 2 = (x-1)(3x^2 + 3x - 2) it follows that 3x2+3x2=03x^2 + 3x - 2 = 0. Solving this equation and noting that x>0x > 0, we obtain x=3+336x = \frac{-3 + \sqrt{33}}{6} as the desired answer.

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