Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 6 / 365 of 400 #1365 of 2000

Problem 1365

National olympiad, first round
Geometry Difficulty 6.8 Prove it

One of the midlines of a triangle is longer than one of its medians. Prove that the triangle has an obtuse angle.

This one wants a proof. Work it on paper, read the official solution, then mark yourself honestly — the ladder only means something if the record is true.

Official solution

1. Understanding the Problem:
We need to prove that if one of the midlines of a triangle is longer than one of its medians, then the triangle must have an obtuse angle.

2. Definitions and Notations:
- A midline (or midsegment) of a triangle is a line segment connecting the midpoints of two sides of the triangle.
- A median of a triangle is a line segment joining a vertex to the midpoint of the opposite side.
- Let ABCABC be a triangle with DD, EE, and FF as the midpoints of sides BCBC, CACA, and ABAB respectively.
- Let ADAD, BEBE, and CFCF be the medians of the triangle.

3. Key Property of Midlines:
- The midline connecting the midpoints of two sides of a triangle is parallel to the third side and half its length. For example, DEABDE \parallel AB and DE=12ABDE = \frac{1}{2} AB.

4. Key Property of Medians:
- The length of a median can be found using Apollonius's theorem, which states that for a triangle ABCABC with median ADAD:
AD2=2AB2+2AC2BC24 AD^2 = \frac{2AB^2 + 2AC^2 - BC^2}{4}

5. Proof by Contradiction:
- Assume the triangle ABCABC is acute. This means all its angles are less than 9090^\circ.
- For an acute triangle, it is known that any side is less than twice the length of any median. This can be shown using the properties of medians and the triangle inequality.

6. Using the Given Condition:
- Suppose one of the midlines, say DEDE, is longer than one of the medians, say ADAD.
- Since DE=12ABDE = \frac{1}{2} AB, the condition DE>ADDE > AD implies:
12AB>AD \frac{1}{2} AB > AD
- Rearranging, we get:
AB>2AD AB > 2AD

7. Contradiction with Acute Triangle Property:
- For an acute triangle, we have:
AB<2AD AB < 2AD
- This contradicts our assumption that AB>2ADAB > 2AD.

8. Conclusion:
- Since assuming the triangle is acute leads to a contradiction, the triangle must have an obtuse angle.

\blacksquare

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