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49th Mathematical Olympiad in Ukraine

Ukraine geometry

Problem

A line intersects the parabola () at the two points and . A line is parallel to the line and tangent to this parabola at the point . Prove that the arithmetic mean of abscissas of points and equals the abscissa of point .
Solution
Let the equation of the line be . Then abscissas of points and are defined using the equality . Therefore these abscissas satisfy that quadratic equation, then according to Vieta's formula we have equality .

The abscissa of point is defined using the same equality



on condition that the line is tangent to this parabola. Then the abscissa of point is , which completes the proof.

Techniques

Cartesian coordinatesVieta's formulasQuadratic functions