Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Find the answer

3. On the side BCB C, resp. CDC D of the parallelogram ABCDA B C D, determine points EE, resp. FF such that segments EF,BDE F, B D are parallel and triangles ABE,AEFA B E, A E F and AFDA F D have the same areas.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

SOLUTION. Let aa be the length of sides ABA B and CDC D, and vv be the distance between their lines, which is also the height of triangle AFDA F D from vertex AA (Fig. 1). From the condition EFBDE F \| B D, according to theorem uu, it follows that triangles BCDB C D and ECFE C F are similar; let k(0,1)k \in(0,1) be the similarity coefficient. Once we calculate it, the problem will be solved.

!

Fig. 1

Since FC=ka,FD=(1k)a|F C|=k a,|F D|=(1-k) a and the heights of triangles ECF,ABEE C F, A B E from their common vertex EE have lengths kvk v, respectively (1k)v(1-k) v, for the areas of triangles AFDA F D and ABEA B E we have

SAFD=(1k)av2=a(1k)v2=SABE, S_{A F D}=\frac{(1-k) a v}{2}=\frac{a(1-k) v}{2}=S_{A B E},

so both areas are equal for any k(0,1)k \in(0,1). Since the area of triangle ECFE C F is SECF=12kakv=12k2avS_{E C F}=\frac{1}{2} k a \cdot k v=\frac{1}{2} k^{2} a v and the area of the entire parallelogram ABCDA B C D is given by the formula SABCD=avS_{A B C D}=a v, we can express the area of triangle AEFA E F as follows:

SAEF=SABCDSABESECFSAFD==av(112(1k)12k212(1k))=av(k12k2). \begin{aligned} S_{A E F} & =S_{A B C D}-S_{A B E}-S_{E C F}-S_{A F D}= \\ & =a v\left(1-\frac{1}{2}(1-k)-\frac{1}{2} k^{2}-\frac{1}{2}(1-k)\right)=a v\left(k-\frac{1}{2} k^{2}\right) . \end{aligned}

The areas of triangles ABE,AFDA B E, A F D will be equal to the area of triangle AEFA E F precisely when

12(1k)=k12k2 or k23k+1=0 \frac{1}{2}(1-k)=k-\frac{1}{2} k^{2} \quad \text { or } \quad k^{2}-3 k+1=0 \text {. }

This quadratic equation has roots

k1,2=3±52 k_{1,2}=\frac{3 \pm \sqrt{5}}{2}

of which only the root k=12(35)k=\frac{1}{2}(3-\sqrt{5}) satisfies the condition k(0,1)k \in(0,1). Let us add that for such kk we have

1k=512=k1k 1-k=\frac{\sqrt{5}-1}{2}=\frac{k}{1-k}

Answer. The desired points E,FE, F are determined by the ratios

CE:EB=CF:FD=(51):2 |C E|:|E B|=|C F|:|F D|=(\sqrt{5}-1): 2 \text {. }

Note. The equality (1k):1=k:(1k)(1-k): 1=k:(1-k) from the conclusion of the solution means that points E,FE, F divide the corresponding sides of the parallelogram in the so-called golden ratio. This is expressed by the equalities

CE:EB=EB:BC and CF:FD=FD:DC |C E|:|E B|=|E B|:|B C| \text { and } \quad|C F|:|F D|=|F D|:|D C| \text {. }

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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.