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Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it Japan

In triangle ABCABC, let PP and QQ be points on side BCBC and suppose that the orthocenter of triangle ACPACP and the orthocenter of triangle ABQABQ coincide. Given that AB=10AB = 10, AC=11AC = 11, BP=5BP = 5, CQ=6CQ = 6, find the length of BCBC.

Solution

Let HH be the orthocenter of triangle ABCABC and KK be the common orthocenter of triangle ABQABQ and triangle ACPACP. Let DD be the foot of the perpendicular from AA to line BCBC. By definition, A,D,H,KA, D, H, K are collinear.

Since AB=10AB = 10, AC=11AC = 11 and BC>5BC > 5, both B\angle B and C\angle C are less than 9090^\circ. Therefore DD lies on side BCBC and DD is different from HH. Assume that DD and KK coincide, then two points PP and QQ coincide with DD. The Pythagorean theorem shows that AB2BP2=AD2=AC2CQ2AB^2 - BP^2 = AD^2 = AC^2 - CQ^2, which is a contradiction because 102521126210^2 - 5^2 \ne 11^2 - 6^2. It follows that DD and KK are different points.

Two lines BHBH and PKPK are both perpendicular to side ACAC. Therefore these two lines are parallel and DB:BP=DH:HKDB : BP = DH : HK follows. Similarly, two lines CHCH and QKQK are parallel and DC:CQ=DH:HKDC : CQ = DH : HK follows. From the above, it follows that DB:BP=DC:CQDB : BP = DC : CQ and DB:DC=BP:CQ=5:6DB : DC = BP : CQ = 5 : 6. Set DB=5tDB = 5t, DC=6tDC = 6t where tt is a real number, then by using Pythagorean theorem for triangles ABDABD and ACDACD we have 102(5t)2=112(6t)210^2 - (5t)^2 = 11^2 - (6t)^2. Since the required length is BC=11tBC = 11t, the answer is 231\sqrt{231}.

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