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Romanian Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

The points MM, NN, and PP are chosen on the sides BCBC, CACA and ABAB of the triangle ABCABC such that BM=BPBM = BP and CM=CNCM = CN. The perpendicular dropped from BB onto MPMP and the perpendicular dropped from CC onto MNMN intersect at II. Prove that the angles IPA^\widehat{IPA} and INC^\widehat{INC} are congruent.

Gabriel Popa

Figure 1

Solution

Since CM=CNCM = CN and CI⊥MNCI \perp MN, the line CICI is the perpendicular bisector of the line segment MNMN, hence IM=INIM = IN. Similarly, we have IM=IPIM = IP. Triangles IMCIMC and INCINC are equal, so IMC^≡INC^\widehat{IMC} \equiv \widehat{INC}, and, in a similar way, we deduce that IMB^≡IPB^\widehat{IMB} \equiv \widehat{IPB}. It follows that IPA^=IMC^\widehat{IPA} = \widehat{IMC}, and, finally, that IPA^≡INC^\widehat{IPA} \equiv \widehat{INC}.

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