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Geometry Difficulty 6.7 National Olympiad Prove it United States

Let ABCABC be a triangle with centroid GG. Points RR and SS are chosen on rays GBGB and GCGC, respectively, such that
ABS=ACR=180BGC. \angle ABS = \angle ACR = 180^\circ - \angle BGC.
Prove that RAS+BAC=BGC\angle RAS + \angle BAC = \angle BGC.

Solution

Solution 1 using power of a point From the given condition that ACR=CGM\angle ACR = \angle CGM, we get that
MA2=MC2=MGMRRAC=MGA. MA^2 = MC^2 = MG \cdot MR \Rightarrow \angle RAC = \angle MGA.
Analogously,
BAS=AGN. \angle BAS = \angle AGN.
Hence,
RAS+BAC=RAC+BAS=MGA+AGN=MGN=BGC. \angle RAS + \angle BAC = \angle RAC + \angle BAS = \angle MGA + \angle AGN = \angle MGN = \angle BGC.

Solution 2 using similar triangles As before, MGCMCR\triangle MGC \sim \triangle MCR and NGBNBS\triangle NGB \sim \triangle NBS. We obtain
ACCR=2MCCR=2MGGC=GB2NG=BS2BN=BSAB \frac{|AC|}{|CR|} = \frac{2|MC|}{|CR|} = \frac{2|MG|}{|GC|} = \frac{|GB|}{2|NG|} = \frac{|BS|}{2|BN|} = \frac{|BS|}{|AB|}
which together with ACR=ABS\angle ACR = \angle ABS yields
ACRSBABAS=CRA. \triangle ACR \sim \triangle SBA \Rightarrow \angle BAS = \angle CRA.

Hence
RAS+BAC=RAC+BAS=RAC+CRA=ACR=BGC, \angle RAS + \angle BAC = \angle RAC + \angle BAS = \angle RAC + \angle CRA = -\angle ACR = \angle BGC,
which proves the statement.

Solution 3 using parallelograms Let MM and NN be defined as above. Let PP be the reflection of GG in MM and let QQ the reflection of GG in NN. Then AGCPAGCP and AGBQAGBQ are parallelograms.
Figure 1

Claim — Quadrilaterals APCR and AQBS are concyclic.
Proof. Because APR=APG=CGP=BGC=ACR\angle APR = \angle APG = \angle CGP = -\angle BGC = \angle ACR. \square

Thus from PCGA\overline{PC} \parallel \overline{GA} we get
RAC=RPC=GPC=PGA \angle RAC = \angle RPC = \angle GPC = \angle PGA
and similarly
BAS=BQS=BQG=AGQ. \angle BAS = \angle BQS = \angle BQG = \angle AGQ.
We conclude that
RAS+BAC=RAC+BAS=PGA+AGQ=PGQ=BGC. \angle RAS + \angle BAC = \angle RAC + \angle BAS = \angle PGA + \angle AGQ = \angle PGQ = \angle BGC.

Solution 4 also using parallelograms, by Ankan Bhattacharya Construct parallelograms ARCK and ASBL. Since
CAK=ACR=CGB=CGK, \angle CAK = \angle ACR = \angle CGB = \angle CGK,
it follows that AGCK is cyclic. Similarly, AGBL is also cyclic.

Finally, observe that
RAS+BAC=BAS+RAC=ABL+KCA=AGL+KGA=KGL=BGC \begin{align*} \angle RAS + \angle BAC &= \angle BAS + \angle RAC \\ &= \angle ABL + \angle KCA \\ &= \angle AGL + \angle KGA \\ &= \angle KGL \\ &= \angle BGC \end{align*}
as requested.

Solution 5 using complex numbers, by Milan Haiman Note that RAS+BAC=BAS+RAC\angle RAS + \angle BAC = \angle BAS + \angle RAC. We compute BAS\angle BAS in complex numbers; then RAC\angle RAC will then be known by symmetry.
Let a,b,ca, b, c be points on the unit circle representing A,B,CA, B, C respectively. Let g=13(a+b+c)g = \frac{1}{3}(a + b + c) represent the centroid GG, and let ss represent SS.

Claim — We have
saba=ab2bc+ca2abbcca. \frac{s-a}{b-a} = \frac{ab-2bc+ca}{2ab-bc-ca}.
Proof. Since SS is on line CGCG, which passes through the midpoint of segment ABAB, we have that
s=a+b2+t(cg) s = \frac{a+b}{2} + t(c-g)
for some tRt \in \mathbb{R}.

By the given angle condition, we have that
(sb)/(ba)(cg)/(gb)R. \frac{(s-b)/(b-a)}{(c-g)/(g-b)} \in \mathbb{R}.
Note that
sbba=tcgba12. \frac{s-b}{b-a} = t \frac{c-g}{b-a} - \frac{1}{2}.
So,
tgbbagb2(cg)R. t \frac{g-b}{b-a} - \frac{g-b}{2(c-g)} \in \mathbb{R}.

t=Im(gb2(cg))Im(gbba)=12(gbcg)(gbcg)(gbba)(gbba) t = \frac{\operatorname{Im}\left(\frac{g-b}{2(c-g)}\right)}{\operatorname{Im}\left(\frac{g-b}{b-a}\right)} = \frac{1}{2} \cdot \frac{\left(\frac{g-b}{c-g}\right) - \overline{\left(\frac{g-b}{c-g}\right)}}{\left(\frac{g-b}{b-a}\right) - \overline{\left(\frac{g-b}{b-a}\right)}}
Let NN and DD be the numerator and denominator of the second factor above.
We want to compute
saba=12+tcgba=(ba)+2t(cg)2(ba)=(ba)D+(cg)N2(ba)D \frac{s-a}{b-a} = \frac{1}{2} + t \frac{c-g}{b-a} = \frac{(b-a) + 2t(c-g)}{2(b-a)} = \frac{(b-a)D + (c-g)N}{2(b-a)D}
We have
(cg)N=gb(cg)(gbcg)=a+b+c3b(ca+b+c3)1a+1b+1c3b3c1a1b1c=(a+c2b)(2abbcca)(2cab)(ab+bc2ca)3(2abbcca)=3(a2b+b2c+c2aab2bc2ca2)3(2abbcca)=(ab)(bc)(ac)2abbcca \begin{align*} (c-g)N &= g-b-(c-g)\overline{\left(\frac{g-b}{c-g}\right)} \\ &= \frac{a+b+c}{3} - b - \left(c - \frac{a+b+c}{3}\right) \frac{\frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} - \frac{3}{b}}{\frac{3}{c} - \frac{1}{a} - \frac{1}{b} - \frac{1}{c}} \\ &= \frac{(a+c-2b)(2ab-bc-ca) - (2c-a-b)(ab+bc-2ca)}{3(2ab-bc-ca)} \\ &= \frac{3(a^2b + b^2c + c^2a - ab^2 - bc^2 - ca^2)}{3(2ab-bc-ca)} \\ &= \frac{(a-b)(b-c)(a-c)}{2ab-bc-ca} \end{align*}

(ba)D=gb(ba)(gbba)=a+b+c3b(ba)1a+1b+1c3b3b3a=(a+c2b)c+(ab+bc2ca)3c=abbcca+c23c=(ac)(bc)3c \begin{align*} (b-a)D &= g-b-(b-a)\overline{\left(\frac{g-b}{b-a}\right)} \\ &= \frac{a+b+c}{3} - b - (b-a) \frac{\frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} - \frac{3}{b}}{\frac{3}{b} - \frac{3}{a}} \\ &= \frac{(a+c-2b)c + (ab+bc-2ca)}{3c} \\ &= \frac{ab-bc-ca+c^2}{3c} \\ &= \frac{(a-c)(b-c)}{3c} \end{align*}

saba=13c+ab2abbcca23c=2abbcca+3c(ab)2(2abbcca)=ab2bc+ca2abbcca. \frac{s-a}{b-a} = \frac{\frac{1}{3c} + \frac{a-b}{2ab-bc-ca}}{\frac{2}{3c}} = \frac{2ab-bc-ca+3c(a-b)}{2(2ab-bc-ca)} = \frac{ab-2bc+ca}{2ab-bc-ca}.

raca=ab2bc+ca2caabbc. \frac{r-a}{c-a} = \frac{ab-2bc+ca}{2ca-ab-bc}.

saba÷raca=2abbcca2caabbc \frac{s-a}{b-a} \div \frac{r-a}{c-a} = \frac{2ab-bc-ca}{2ca-ab-bc}

We also have that BGC\angle BGC is the argument of
bgcg=2bac2cab. \frac{b-g}{c-g} = \frac{2b-a-c}{2c-a-b}.

Note that these two complex numbers are inverse-conjugates, and thus have the same argument. So we're done.

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