Day 22: A Forest of Lines

Geometry Level 4

A triangle A B C ABC is right angled at B B . From each of A A and C C two angle trisectors are drawn to the opposite side, and from each of the four intersections a perpendicular is drawn onto the side A C AC . The feet of these perpendiculars are named M , N , O M, N, O and P P in order from A A .

Find the value of M B N + O B P \angle MBN + \angle OBP .

This problem is part of the set Advent Calendar 2014 .


The answer is 30.

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1 solution

Michael Ng
Dec 21, 2014

First I shall name the other ends of the trisectors H , G , E H, G, E and F F clockwise from A A and call F A C \angle FAC α \alpha and H C A \angle HCA β \beta :

First notice that α + β = 3 0 \alpha + \beta = 30^{\circ} due to the angle sum in a triangle.

Now A P F B APFB is cyclic so P B F = α \angle PBF = \alpha . We use the same trick to show that M B H = β \angle MBH = \beta . So M B P = 9 0 ( α + β ) = 6 0 \angle MBP = 90^{\circ} - (\alpha+ \beta) = 60^{\circ} .

We can apply a similar method on cyclic quadrilaterals A O E B AOEB and C N G B CNGB to show that N B O = 9 0 2 ( α + β ) = 3 0 \angle NBO = 90^{\circ} - 2(\alpha+ \beta) = 30^{\circ} .

Therefore M B N + O B P = 6 0 3 0 = 3 0 \angle MBN +\angle OBP = 60^{\circ} - 30^{\circ} = \boxed{30^{\circ}}

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