Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Ukraine

In an acute triangle ABCABC there is an altitude AHAH and median AMAM. On lines ABAB and ACAC there are points XX and YY so that AX=XCAX = XC and AY=YBAY = YB. Prove that the midpoint of segment XYXY is equidistant from points HH and MM.

Solution

Let ZZ be the midpoint of segment XYXY, and NN and TT be the midpoints of segments ABAB and ACAC respectively (see the figure).

As, according to the condition, AX=XCAX = XC and AY=YBAY = YB, XTXT and YNYN are bisectors to segments ACAC and ABAB. Then triangles XTYXTY and XNYXNY are right triangles, so XZ=ZN=ZT=ZYXZ = ZN = ZT = ZY, because the median of a right triangle, drawn to the hypotenuse, equals its half. So, point ZZ is equidistant from NN and TT.

Figure 1

On the other side, NTBCNT \parallel BC, because NTNT is the midline of ABC\triangle ABC. MTMT is also a center line of ABC\triangle ABC, so MT=12ABMT = \frac{1}{2}AB. NH=12ABNH = \frac{1}{2}AB as the median, drawn to the hypotenuse in a right triangle. So, HNTMHNTM is an isosceles trapezoid. Then its bases have a common bisector. We have proved that point ZZ belongs to bisector NTNT. Then it belongs to bisector HMHM.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.