1974 USAMO Problems/Problem 5

Problem

Consider the two triangles $\triangle ABC$ and $\triangle PQR$ shown in Figure 1. In $\triangle ABC$ , $\angle ADB = \angle BDC = \angle CDA = 120^\circ$ . Prove that $x=u+v+w$ . $[asy] size(400); defaultpen(1); pair C=(0,1), A=(1,6), B=(4,1), D=(1.5,2); draw(D--A--B--C--D--B); draw(A--C); label("$A$",A,N); label("$B$",B,ESE); label("$C$",C,SW); label("$a$",(B+C)/2,S); label("$b$",(C+A)/2,WNW); label("$c$",(A+B)/2,NE); label("$u$",(A+D)/2,E); label("$v$",(B+D)/2,N); label("$w$",(C+D)/2,N); pair P=(7,0), Q=(14,0), R=P+7expi(pi/3), M=(10,1.2); draw(M--P--Q--R--M--Q); draw(P--R); label("$P$",P,W); label("$Q$",Q,E); label("$R$",R,W); label("$M$",M,NE); label("$x$",(P+Q)/2,S); label("$x$",(Q+R)/2,E); label("$x$",(R+P)/2,W); label("$a$",(P+M)/2,SE); label("$b$",(Q+M)/2,N); label("$c$",(R+M)/2,E); label("Figure 1",P-(0,1),S); [/asy]$

Solution

We rotate figure $PRQM$ by a clockwise angle of $\pi/3$ about $Q$ to obtain figure $RR'QM'$ : $[asy] size(300); defaultpen(1); pair P=(7,0), Q=(14,0), R=P+7expi(pi/3), M=(10,1.2); pair RR=R+Q-P, MM= rotate(-60,Q)*M; draw(P--R--RR--Q--P--M--MM--RR); draw(Q--R--M--Q--MM--R); label("$P$",P,W); label("$Q$",Q,E); label("$R$",R,W); label("$M$",M,NW); label("$R'$",RR,NE); label("$M'$",MM,ESE); [/asy]$

Evidently, $MM'Q$ is an equilateral triangle, so triangles $MRM'$ and $ABC$ are congruent. Also, triangles $PMQ$ and $RM'Q$ are congruent, since they are images of each other under rotations. Then $[ABC] + \frac{b^2 \sqrt{3}}{4} = [MRM'] + [MM'Q] = [QMR] + [RM'Q] = [QMR] + [PMQ] .$ Then by symmetry, $3 [ABC] + \frac{(a^2+b^2+c^2)\sqrt{3}}{4} = 2\bigl( [PMQ] + [QMR] + [RMP] \bigr) = 2 [PRQ] .$

But $ABC$ is composed of three smaller triangles. The one with sides $w,v,a$ has area $\tfrac{1}{2} wv \sin 120^\circ = \frac{wv \sqrt{3}}{4}$ . Therefore, the area of $ABC$ is $\frac{(wv+vu+uw)\sqrt{3}}{4} .$ Also, by the Law of Cosines on that small triangle of $ABC$ , $a^2 = w^2 + wv+ v^2$ , so by symmetry, $\frac{(a^2 + b^2 + c^2)\sqrt{3}}{4} = \frac{\bigl[2(u^2+w^2+v^2) + wv + vu + uw \bigr] \sqrt{3}}{4}.$ Therefore $\begin{align*} \frac{(u+v+w)^2 \sqrt{3}}{2} &= 3 \frac{(wv+vu+uw)\sqrt{3}}{4} + \frac{\bigl[2(u^2+w^2+v^2) + wv + vu + uw \bigr] \sqrt{3}}{4} \\ &= 3 [ABC] + \frac{(a^2+b^2+c^2)\sqrt{3}}{4} = 2[PQR] . \end{align*}$ But the area of triangle $PQR$ is $a^2 \sqrt{3}/4$ . It follows that $u+v+w=a$ , as desired. $\blacksquare$