Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 7.1 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

Let PP and PP^{\prime} be two convex quadrilateral regions in the plane (regions contain their boundary). Let them intersect, with OO a point in the intersection. Suppose that for every line \ell through OO the segment P\ell \cap P is strictly longer than the segment P\ell \cap P^{\prime}. Is it possible that the ratio of the area of PP^{\prime} to the area of PP is greater than 1.9?
(Bulgaria) Nikolai Beluhov

Solution

The answer is in the affirmative: Given a positive \epsilonYαYπ+α\epsilonY_{\alpha} Y_{\pi+\alpha} yields 212(f2(α)+f2(π+α))=OXα2+OXπ+α212XαXπ+α2>2 \cdot \frac{1}{2}\left(f^{2}(\alpha)+f^{2}(\pi+\alpha)\right)=O X_{\alpha}^{2}+O X_{\pi+\alpha}^{2} \geq \frac{1}{2} X_{\alpha} X_{\pi+\alpha}^{2}> 12YαYπ+α212(OYα2+OYπ+α2)=12(g2(α)+g2(π+α))\frac{1}{2} Y_{\alpha} Y_{\pi+\alpha}^{2} \geq \frac{1}{2}\left(O Y_{\alpha}^{2}+O Y_{\pi+\alpha}^{2}\right)=\frac{1}{2}\left(g^{2}(\alpha)+g^{2}(\pi+\alpha)\right). Integration then gives us 2[P]>[P]2[P]>\left[P^{\prime}\right], as needed.

This can also be proved via elementary methods. Actually, we will establish the following more general fact.

Fact. Let P=A1A2A3A4P=A_{1} A_{2} A_{3} A_{4} and P=B1B2B3B4P^{\prime}=B_{1} B_{2} B_{3} B_{4} be two convex quadrangles in the plane, and let OO be one of their common points different from the vertices of PP^{\prime}. Denote by i\ell_{i} the line OBiO B_{i}, and assume that for every i=1,2,3,4i=1,2,3,4 the length of segment iP\ell_{i} \cap P is greater than the length of segment iP\ell_{i} \cap P^{\prime}. Then $\left[P^{\prime}\right]\left[P^{\prime}\right]\left(1-\frac{B_{1} C_{3}+B_{4} C_{2}}{2 B_{1} B_{4}}\right) \geq \frac{\left[P^{\prime}\right]}{2} .
\end{aligned}
A contradiction. Case 2. Assume now that the rays $B_{1} B_{2}$ and $B_{4} B_{3}$ intersect at some point (see the right figure above). Denote by $L$ the common point of $B_{2} C_{1}$ and $B_{3} C_{4}$. We have $\left[B_{2} C_{4} C_{1}\right] \geq\left[B_{2} C_{4} B_{3}\right]$, hence $\left[C_{1} C_{4} L\right] \geq\left[B_{2} B_{3} L\right]$. Thus we have
[P]>[B1B2C1C2]+[B3B4C3C4]=[P]+[LC1C2C3C4][B2B3L][P]+[C1C4L][B2B3L][P].\begin{aligned} {\left[P^{\prime}\right]>\left[B_{1} B_{2} C_{1} C_{2}\right]+\left[B_{3} B_{4} C_{3} C_{4}\right] } & =\left[P^{\prime}\right]+\left[L C_{1} C_{2} C_{3} C_{4}\right]-\left[B_{2} B_{3} L\right] \\ & \geq\left[P^{\prime}\right]+\left[C_{1} C_{4} L\right]-\left[B_{2} B_{3} L\right] \geq\left[P^{\prime}\right] . \end{aligned}

A final contradiction.

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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.