Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /49 of 520

Geometry Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

Consider a triangle ABCA B C and let MM be the midpoint of the side BCB C. Suppose MAC=ABC\angle M A C=\angle A B C and BAM=105\angle B A M=105^{\circ}. Find the measure of ABC\angle A B C.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

The angle measure is 3030^{\circ}.

!

Let OO be the circumcenter of the triangle ABMA B M. From BAM=105\angle B A M=105^{\circ} follows MBO=15\angle M B O=15^{\circ}. Let M,CM^{\prime}, C^{\prime} be the projections of points M,CM, C onto the line BOB O. Since MBO=15\angle M B O=15^{\circ}, then MOM=30\angle M O M^{\prime}=30^{\circ} and consequently MM=MO2M M^{\prime}=\frac{M O}{2}. On the other hand, MMM M^{\prime} joins the midpoints of two sides of the triangle BCCB C C^{\prime}, which implies CC=MO=AOC C^{\prime}=M O=A O.

The relation MAC=ABC\angle M A C=\angle A B C implies CAC A tangent to ω\omega, hence AOACA O \perp A C. It follows that ACOOCC\triangle A C O \equiv \triangle O C C^{\prime}, and furthermore OBACO B \| A C.

Therefore AOM=AOMMOM=9030=60\angle A O M=\angle A O M^{\prime}-\angle M O M^{\prime}=90^{\circ}-30^{\circ}=60^{\circ} and ABM=\angle A B M= AOM2=30\frac{\angle A O M}{2}=30^{\circ}.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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