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AustriaMO2013

Austria 2013 geometry

Problem

Let be a regular octahedron with lower vertex , upper vertex , middle slice plane , center and circumsphere . Furthermore let be an arbitrary point within side . The line intersects in and and the plane in .

problem


problem
Solution
We intersect the entire figure with the plane through the points , and . Since is on line , it is part of that plane. Also points and are part of that plane because they are on line . The intersection of the circumsphere and the plane results in a circle , which also has as its center. The intersection of with the plane is the perpendicular bisector of line , and is on that bisector.

We denote . Since and are both radii of (and ), the triangle is isosceles, therefore . Since is on the bisector of , also triangle is isosceles, therefore . Therefore the triangles and are similar, and their corresponding angles and are identical.

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Alternative solution.

We intersect the figure with the plane as we did in solution 1. Since , and by Thales also , the quadrilateral has a circumcircle. Therefore , and we again get that the triangles and are similar.

Techniques

3D ShapesCyclic quadrilateralsAngle chasing