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Geometry Difficulty 6.6 National olympiad Prove it Netherlands

In triangle ABCABC we have ACB=90\angle ACB = 90^\circ. The point MM is the midpoint of ABAB. The line through MM parallel to BCBC intersects ACAC in DD. The midpoint of line segment CDCD is EE. The lines BDBD and CMCM are perpendicular.
Figure 1
Be aware: the figure is not drawn to scale.

a. Prove that triangles CMECME and ABDABD are similar.

b. Prove that EMEM and ABAB are perpendicular.

Solution

a. We first prove the similarity CMDABC\triangle CMD \sim \triangle ABC. Since BCBC and MDMD are parallel, we find that ADM=ACB=90\angle ADM = \angle ACB = 90^\circ and also AMD=ABC\angle AMD = \angle ABC. It follows that ABCAMD\triangle ABC \sim \triangle AMD. Because AB=2AM|AB| = 2|AM| we also have that AC=2AD|AC| = 2|AD| and thus AD=DC|AD| = |DC|. This implies the congruence AMDCMD\triangle AMD \cong \triangle CMD: both triangles have a right angle at DD and the two adjacent sides have the same length. Now we have that ABCAMDCMD\triangle ABC \sim \triangle AMD \cong \triangle CMD, and so it holds that CMDABC\triangle CMD \sim \triangle ABC.

Now we will prove that CMEABD\triangle CME \sim \triangle ABD. We already know that ECM=DCM=CAB=DAB\angle ECM = \angle DCM = \angle CAB = \angle DAB, and also that
ECCM=12DCCM=12CAAB=DAAB \frac{|EC|}{|CM|} = \frac{\frac{1}{2}|DC|}{|CM|} = \frac{\frac{1}{2}|CA|}{|AB|} = \frac{|DA|}{|AB|}
This implies that CMEABD\triangle CME \sim \triangle ABD: the triangles have one equal angle and the two adjacent sides have the same ratio.

b. Let FF be the intersection of BDBD and CMCM. Since BDBD is perpendicular to CMCM we have that BFM=90\angle BFM = 90^\circ. So in the triangle BFM\triangle BFM we have that BMF+FBM=90\angle BMF + \angle FBM = 90^\circ. Because of the similar triangles in part (b) we have FBM=ABD=CME=FME\angle FBM = \angle ABD = \angle CME = \angle FME. It follows that BMF+FME=90\angle BMF + \angle FME = 90^\circ, hence EMEM is perpendicular to ABAB. \square

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