Maths Olympiad Prep

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Problem 1129

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Geometry Difficulty 4.8 Find the answer HMMT November

Regular hexagon ABCDEFA B C D E F has side length 2. A laser beam is fired inside the hexagon from point AA and hits BC‾\overline{B C} at point GG. The laser then reflects off BC‾\overline{B C} and hits the midpoint of DE‾\overline{D E}. Find BGB G.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

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Official solution

Look at the diagram below, in which points J,K,M,TJ, K, M, T, and XX have been defined. MM is the midpoint of DE‾,BCJK\overline{D E}, B C J K is a rhombus with JJ lying on the extension of CD‾,T\overline{C D}, T is the intersection of lines CD‾\overline{C D} and GM‾\overline{G M} when extended, and XX is on JT‾\overline{J T} such that XM‾∥JK‾\overline{X M} \| \overline{J K}. It can be shown that m∠MDX=m∠MXD=60∘m \angle M D X=m \angle M X D=60^{\circ}, so △DMX\triangle D M X is equilateral, which yields XM=1X M=1. The diagram indicates that JX=5J X=5. One can show by angle-angle similarity that △TXM∼△TJK\triangle T X M \sim \triangle T J K, which yields TX=5T X=5. One can also show by angle-angle similarity that △TJK∼△TCG\triangle T J K \sim \triangle T C G, which yields the proportion TJJK=TCCG\frac{T J}{J K}=\frac{T C}{C G}. We know everything except CGC G, which we can solve for. This yields CG=85C G=\frac{8}{5}, so BG=25B G=\frac{2}{5}.

Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty, ordering) added by this project.