Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National olympiad Prove it

Let ABCDEA B C D E be a convex pentagon such that
BAC=CAD=DAE and ABC=ACD=ADE \angle B A C=\angle C A D=\angle D A E \quad \text { and } \quad \angle A B C=\angle A C D=\angle A D E \text {. }
The diagonals BDB D and CEC E meet at PP. Prove that the line APA P bisects the side CDC D.

Solution

Let the diagonals ACA C and BDB D meet at QQ, the diagonals ADA D and CEC E meet at RR, and let the ray APA P meet the side CDC D at MM. We want to prove that CM=MDC M=M D holds. ! The idea is to show that QQ and RR divide ACA C and ADA D in the same ratio, or more precisely AQQC=ARRD \frac{A Q}{Q C}=\frac{A R}{R D} (which is equivalent to QRCDQ R \| C D ). The given angle equalities imply that the triangles ABCA B C, ACDA C D and ADEA D E are similar. We therefore have ABAC=ACAD=ADAE \frac{A B}{A C}=\frac{A C}{A D}=\frac{A D}{A E} Since BAD=BAC+CAD=CAD+DAE=CAE\angle B A D=\angle B A C+\angle C A D=\angle C A D+\angle D A E=\angle C A E, it follows from AB/AC=A B / A C= AD/AEA D / A E that the triangles ABDA B D and ACEA C E are also similar. Their angle bisectors in AA are AQA Q and ARA R, respectively, so that ABAC=AQAR \frac{A B}{A C}=\frac{A Q}{A R} Because AB/AC=AC/ADA B / A C=A C / A D, we obtain AQ/AR=AC/ADA Q / A R=A C / A D, which is equivalent to (1). Now Ceva's theorem for the triangle ACDA C D yields AQQCCMMDDRRA=1 \frac{A Q}{Q C} \cdot \frac{C M}{M D} \cdot \frac{D R}{R A}=1 In view of (1), this reduces to CM=MDC M=M D, which completes the proof. Comment. Relation (1) immediately follows from the fact that quadrilaterals ABCDA B C D and ACDEA C D E are similar.

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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.