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Geometry Difficulty 6.9 National Olympiad Prove it India

Problem:

In an acute triangle ABCABC, OO is the circumcenter, HH is the orthocenter and GG is the centroid. Let ODOD be perpendicular to BCBC and HEHE be perpendicular to CACA, with DD on BCBC and EE on CACA. Let FF be the midpoint of ABAB. Suppose the areas of triangles ODCODC, HEAHEA and GFBGFB are equal. Find all the possible values of C^\widehat{C}.

Solution

Solution:

Let RR be the circumradius of ABC\triangle ABC and Δ\Delta its area. We have OD=RcosAOD = R \cos A and DC=a2DC = \frac{a}{2}, so
[ODC]=12ODDC=12RcosARsinA=12R2sinAcosA [ODC] = \frac{1}{2} \cdot OD \cdot DC = \frac{1}{2} \cdot R \cos A \cdot R \sin A = \frac{1}{2} R^2 \sin A \cos A
Again HE=2RcosCcosAHE = 2R \cos C \cos A and EA=ccosAEA = c \cos A. Hence
[HEA]=12HEEA=122RcosCcosAccosA=2R2sinCcosCcos2A [HEA] = \frac{1}{2} \cdot HE \cdot EA = \frac{1}{2} \cdot 2R \cos C \cos A \cdot c \cos A = 2R^2 \sin C \cos C \cos^2 A
Further
[GFB]=Δ6=162R2sinAsinBsinC=13R2sinAsinBsinC [GFB] = \frac{\Delta}{6} = \frac{1}{6} \cdot 2R^2 \sin A \sin B \sin C = \frac{1}{3} R^2 \sin A \sin B \sin C
Equating (1) and (2) we get tanA=4sinCcosC\tan A = 4 \sin C \cos C. And equating (1) and (3), and using this relation we get
3cosA=2sinBsinC=2sin(C+A)sinC=2(sinC+cosCtanA)sinCcosA=2sin2C(1+4cos2C)cosA \begin{aligned} 3 \cos A & = 2 \sin B \sin C = 2 \sin (C + A) \sin C \\ & = 2(\sin C + \cos C \tan A) \sin C \cos A \\ & = 2 \sin^2 C (1 + 4 \cos^2 C) \cos A \end{aligned}
Since cosA0\cos A \neq 0 we get 3=2t(4t+5)3 = 2t(-4t + 5) where t=sin2Ct = \sin^2 C. This implies (4t3)(2t1)=0(4t - 3)(2t - 1) = 0 and therefore, since sinC>0\sin C > 0, we get sinC=3/2\sin C = \sqrt{3}/2 or sinC=1/2\sin C = 1/\sqrt{2}. Because ABC\triangle ABC is acute, it follows that C^=π/3\widehat{C} = \pi/3 or π/4\pi/4.

We observe that the given conditions are satisfied in an equilateral triangle, so C^=π/3\widehat{C} = \pi/3 is a possibility. Also, the conditions are satisfied in a triangle where C^=π/4\widehat{C} = \pi/4, A^=tan12\widehat{A} = \tan^{-1} 2 and B^=tan13\widehat{B} = \tan^{-1} 3. Therefore C^=π/4\widehat{C} = \pi/4 is also a possibility.

Thus the two possible values of C^\widehat{C} are π/3\pi/3 and π/4\pi/4.

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