Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.5 AIME Prove it Baltic Way

Problem:

Given an isosceles triangle ABCA B C with A=90\angle A=90^\circ. Let MM be the midpoint of ABA B. The line passing through AA and perpendicular to CMC M intersects the side BCB C at PP. Prove that AMC=BMP\angle A M C=\angle B M P.

Solution

Figure 1
Figure 2

Choose the point KK such that ABKCA B K C is a square. Let NN be the point of intersection of APA P and BKB K (see Figure 2). Since the lines ANA N and CMC M are perpendicular, NN is the midpoint of BKB K. Moreover, triangles AMCA M C and BNAB N A are congruent, which gives
AMC=BNA \angle A M C=\angle B N A
Since BM=BN|B M|=|B N| and MBP=NBP\angle M B P=\angle N B P, it follows that triangles MBPM B P and NBPN B P are congruent. This implies that
BMP=BNP \angle B M P=\angle B N P
Combining (1) and (2) yields the required equality.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.