Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it

\section*{Exercise 2 - 181032}

Prove:

A triangle is equilateral if and only if at least two of its medians are also angle bisectors!

Solution

A) Let triangle ABCA B C be equilateral, i.e., AB=AC=BCA B = A C = B C. The midpoint of ABA B is MM. Then, by the SSS congruence criterion: AMCBMC\triangle A M C \cong \triangle B M C.

Thus, ACM=BMC\angle A C M = \angle B M C, i.e., the median CMCM is also an angle bisector. The same statement can be proven similarly for the other medians.

B) In triangle ABCA B C, let MM be the midpoint of ABA B, and the median CMC M is also an angle bisector. Then,

AM=MB(1)andACM=MCB A M = M B \quad \text{(1)} \quad \text{and} \quad \angle A C M = \angle M C B

The parallels to ACA C through BB and to BCB C through AA intersect at a point CC^{\prime}, and for this, ACBCA C^{\prime} B C is a parallelogram. Due to (1) and because the diagonals of a parallelogram bisect each other, CCC C^{\prime} passes through MM.

Thus, MCB\angle M C B and ACM\angle A C^{\prime} M are alternate interior angles and therefore congruent; hence, and due to (2), ACM=ACM\angle A C M = \angle A C^{\prime} M.

Therefore, triangle ACCA C^{\prime} C is isosceles with AC=ACA C = A C^{\prime}. From this and AC=CBA C^{\prime} = C B, it follows that AC=BCA C = B C. (3)

Similarly, one can show: If, for example, the median through BB is also an angle bisector, then AB=CBA B = C B. (4)

From (3) and (4), the equilateral nature of ABC\triangle A B C follows.

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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.