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Geometry Difficulty 7.2 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

Let ABCABC be a triangle, and let PP be a point inside it such that PAC=PBC\angle PAC = \angle PBC. The perpendiculars from PP to BCBC and CACA meet these lines at LL and MM, respectively, and DD is the midpoint of ABAB. Prove that DL=DM.DL = DM.

Solution

1. Given: Triangle ABCABC with point PP inside such that PAC=PBC\angle PAC = \angle PBC. Perpendiculars from PP to BCBC and CACA meet these lines at LL and MM respectively. DD is the midpoint of ABAB.

2. Objective: Prove that DL=DMDL = DM.

3. Step 1: Consider the midpoints of lines BPBP and APAP, denoted as EE and FF respectively. Since DD is the midpoint of ABAB, we have:
D=midpoint of AB D = \text{midpoint of } AB
E=midpoint of BP E = \text{midpoint of } BP
F=midpoint of AP F = \text{midpoint of } AP

4. Step 2: Since DD is the midpoint of ABAB, DEDE and DFDF are medians of triangles DBPDBP and DAPDAP respectively. By the midpoint theorem, DEDE and DFDF are parallel to APAP and BPBP respectively and half their lengths.

5. Step 3: Since PAC=PBC\angle PAC = \angle PBC, triangles PACPAC and PBCPBC are similar by AA similarity criterion. This implies that the perpendiculars from PP to BCBC and CACA (i.e., PLPL and PMPM) are equal in length.

6. Step 4: Since PLBCPL \perp BC and PMCAPM \perp CA, PLPL and PMPM are the altitudes from PP to BCBC and CACA respectively. Therefore, LL and MM are the feet of the perpendiculars from PP to BCBC and CACA.

7. Step 5: By the properties of perpendiculars and midpoints, we have:
DF=ELandDE=FM DF = EL \quad \text{and} \quad DE = FM
This is because DFDF and ELEL are both half the length of APAP and DEDE and FMFM are both half the length of BPBP.

8. Step 6: By angle chasing, we can show that DFM=DEL\angle DFM = \angle DEL. Since DF=ELDF = EL and DE=FMDE = FM, triangles DFMDFM and DELDEL are congruent by the SAS (Side-Angle-Side) criterion.

9. Conclusion: Since DFMDEL\triangle DFM \cong \triangle DEL, it follows that DL=DMDL = DM.

\blacksquare

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.