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IRL ABooklet

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)=∣DH∣∣DA∣=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)=32⋅56−12⋅116=53−1112. \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<53−112\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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