Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it

## Exercise 5

Let ABCA B C be a right triangle at AA with AB<ACA B < A C, MM the midpoint of [BC][B C], DD the intersection of (AC)(A C) with the line perpendicular to (BC)(B C) passing through MM, and EE the point of intersection of the line parallel to (AC)(A C) passing through MM with the line perpendicular to (BD)(B D) passing through BB.

Show that the triangles AEMA E M and MCAM C A are similar if and only if ABC=60\angle A B C = 60^{\circ}.

Solution

## Corrected

Let's start by drawing a figure.

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First, since AB<AC AB < AC , D D lies on the segment [AC][AC] and the angle MAE\angle MAE is obtuse. Since MC=MA MC = MA , this implies that CAM\triangle CAM and AME\triangle AME are similar if and only if AME\triangle AME is isosceles at A A .

Suppose that AEM\triangle AEM and MCA\triangle MCA are similar. From the first paragraph, this implies AM=AE AM = AE . The lines (EM)(EM) and (AC)(AC) are parallel, so the lines (AB)(AB) and (ME)(ME) are perpendicular. Combined with the fact that AM=AE AM = AE , this shows that AMB\triangle AMB and ABE\triangle ABE are symmetric with respect to (AB)(AB). Let α=MAB\alpha = \angle MAB. Since M M is the midpoint of [BC][BC], we have AM=MB AM = MB , which gives α=ABC\alpha = \angle ABC. On the other hand, α=BAE=ABE=90DBA=ADB\alpha = \angle BAE = \angle ABE = 90^\circ - \angle DBA = \angle ADB.

Since DAB=DMB=90\angle DAB = \angle DMB = 90^\circ, the points A,D,M,B A, D, M, B are concyclic. We deduce that AMB=ADB=α\angle AMB = \angle ADB = \alpha. The triangle AMB\triangle AMB has all three angles equal to α\alpha. Therefore, it is equilateral and α=60\alpha = 60^\circ. Thus, ABC=60\angle ABC = 60^\circ.

Conversely, if ABC=60\angle ABC = 60^\circ, the same reasoning shows that AMB\triangle AMB and ABE\triangle ABE are symmetric with respect to (AB)(AB), which implies that AME\triangle AME is isosceles at A A . Since CAM=AME\angle CAM = \angle AME, AEM\triangle AEM and MCA\triangle MCA 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.