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Geometry Difficulty 6.3 National olympiad Prove it Ireland

The Mosers' spindle is a seven point configuration in the plane in which ABC, BCD, AEF and EFG are equilateral triangles with side length 11. The points AA, BB, DD, GG, FF form a convex pentagon with DG=1|DG| = 1.
Figure 1
Determine which of the angles, BAF\angle BAF or BDG\angle BDG, is bigger.

Solution

Connect AA to DD and GG. Because ABC\triangle ABC and BCD\triangle BCD are equilateral, BAD=BDA=30\angle BAD = \angle BDA = 30^\circ and AD=3|AD| = \sqrt{3}. Similarly, GAF=30\angle GAF = 30^\circ and AG=3|AG| = \sqrt{3}. We now have BDG=BDA+ADG=30+ADG\angle BDG = \angle BDA + \angle ADG = 30^\circ + \angle ADG
Figure 2

and BAF=BAD+DAG+GAF=60+DAG\angle BAF = \angle BAD + \angle DAG + \angle GAF = 60^\circ + \angle DAG. We will show that BDG>BAF\angle BDG > \angle BAF by proving cos(ADG)<cos(30+DAG)\cos(\angle ADG) < \cos(30^\circ + \angle DAG).
Letting HH be the midpoint of DGDG and using triangle ADHADH we find
cos(ADG)=DHDA=123=2312. \cos(\angle ADG) = \frac{|DH|}{|DA|} = \frac{1}{2\sqrt{3}} = \frac{2\sqrt{3}}{12}.

Because cos(30+DAG)=cos(30)cos(DAG)sin(30)sin(DAG)\cos(30^\circ + \angle DAG) = \cos(30^\circ)\cos(\angle DAG) - \sin(30^\circ)\sin(\angle DAG), we next wish to find cos(DAG)\cos(\angle DAG) and sin(DAG)\sin(\angle DAG). The Cosine Rule for

ADG\triangle ADG yields cos(DAG)=5/6\cos(\angle DAG) = 5/6. Because DAG<180\angle DAG < 180^\circ, this implies sin(DAG)=11/6\sin(\angle DAG) = \sqrt{11}/6. Hence
cos(30+DAG)=325612116=531112. \cos(30^\circ + \angle DAG) = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} \cdot \frac{5}{6} - \frac{1}{2} \cdot \frac{\sqrt{11}}{6} = \frac{5\sqrt{3} - \sqrt{11}}{12}.
To prove 23<53112\sqrt{3} < 5\sqrt{3} - \sqrt{11} we rewrite this as 11<33\sqrt{11} < 3\sqrt{3} and then square. This shows that cos(ADG)<cos(30+DAG)\cos(\angle ADG) < \cos(30^\circ + \angle DAG), which means that ADG>30+DAG\angle ADG > 30^\circ + \angle DAG, and so BDG>BAF\angle BDG > \angle BAF.

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