J3 Geometry Essentials

Ahmed Hasib Ittihad

M Ahsan Al Mahir

February 10, 2021

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1 Important Theorems

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Theorem 1.1 — In a right angled triangle ABC with ∠ABC = 2,
π
AB 2 + BC 2 = AC 2 .

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Theorem 1.2 — More generally, In a triangle ABC with ∠ABC = θ, AC 2 = AB 2 + BC 2 − 2 ·
AB · BC · cos θ. h
Theorem 1.3 — The area of a triangle is 12 × base × height. If you know two sides a and b of
a triangle and the angle θ in between, the area can be calculated using the formula 12 ab sin θ. If
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you know three sides of a triangle, you can use heron’s formula s(s − a)(s − b)(s − c) where
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s = a+b+c .
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Theorem 1.4 — For two similar triangles ABC and DEF we have
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AB BC CA
= =
DE EF FD
If there are a lot of parallel lines in the problem, there will be a lot of similar triangles as well.
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Theorem 1.5 — The area of a circle with radius r is πr2 . The perimeter is 2πr.
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Theorem 1.6 — Let ABCD be a convex cyclic quadrilateral. Then ∠ABC + ∠CDA = 180◦ and
∠ABD = ∠ACD
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2 General tips

1. Draw large diagrams!

2. Mark values onto your diagrams, you’ll spot more stuff easily by doing that
3. Use all the information. If you’re stuck on a problem, look back at the given information. If there’s
anything there you haven’t used to make more observations, that’s where you should look.
4. Work backwards. Sometimes you can work backwards from what you want until you hit something you
know how to find.

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 3 Past National Problems

Problem 3.1 (Junior 2019/3). In the figure, ABCD is a rectangle and EF GH is a parallelogram. DI is
perpendicular to EF and BK is perpendicular to HG. Using the measurements give in the figure, find the
value of DI .

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Problem 3.2 (Junior 2019/6). In the figure, ABCD is a trapezium where AB k CD. P, Q, R, S are the
midpoints of AB, BD, DC, CA respectively. AC and BD intersect at O. Area of 4AOB = 2019 and area

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of 4COD = 2020. What is the area of quadrilateral P QRS ?
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Problem 3.3 (Junior 2018/1). The area of a rectange is 240. All the lengths of the sides of this rectangle are
integers. What is the lowest possible perimeter of this rectangle?
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Problem 3.4 (Junior 2016/2). Let ABC be a triangular piece of paper with an area of 500 square units. Let
AB = 20. DE k AB . We fold the piece of paper along DE to get the image below. The area of the part of
the triangle below AB as an area of 80 square units. What is the area of CDE ?
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Problem 3.5 (Junior 2015/4). In the following figure BKLGN M , CM N HP O and DOP IRQ are regular
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hexagons (all six sides of each hexagon are equal and so are the angles). BKLGN M has an area of 24 square
units. What is the area of the rectangle AF JE ?

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 Problem 3.6 (Junior 2016/9). The area of 4ABC is 2016. Let D, E, F be three points on the sides BC, AB, AC
respectively. Show that, the area of at least one triangle 4AEF, 4BDE, 4CDF is not larger than 504.

4 Area Calculations

Problem 4.1. What is the area of the shaded region of the given 8 × 5 rectangle?

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Problem 4.2 (AMC 2019/16). The figure below shows 13 circles of radius 1 within a larger circle. All the

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intersections occur at points of tangency. What is the area of the region, shaded in the figure, inside the larger
circle but outside all the circles of radius 1? h
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Problem 4.3 (AMC 2019/8). The figure below shows a square and four equilateral triangles, with each triangle
having a side lying on a side of the square, such that each triangle has side length 2 and the third vertices of
the triangles meet at the center of the square. The region inside the square but outside the triangles is shaded.
What is the area of the shaded region?
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Problem 4.4. In the figure below, N congruent semicircles lie on the diameter of a large semicircle, with their
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diameters covering the diameter of the large semicircle with no overlap. Let A be the combined area of the
small semicircles and B be the area of the region inside the large semicircle but outside the semicircles. The
ratio A : B is 1 : 18. What is N ?

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 Problem 4.5. All of the triangles in the diagram below are similar to iscoceles triangle ABC , in which AB =
AC . Each of the 7 smallest triangles has area 1, and 4ABC has area 40. What is the area of trapezoid
DBCE ?

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5 Other answer based problems

Problem 5.1 (AIME 2019/6). In convex quadrilateral KLM N , side M N is perpendicular to diagonal KM . Side

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KL is perpendicular to diagonal LN . M N = 65, KL = 28. The line through L perpendicular to side KN
intersects diagonal KM at O with KO = 8. Find M O.

Problem 5.2. Two telephone cable poles, 40 feet and 60 feet high, respectively, are placed near each other. As
partial support, a line runs from the top of each pole to the bottom of the other. How high above the ground
h
is the point of intersection of the two support lines?
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Problem 5.3 (Cutting a triangle part 1). A triangle has sides of length 13, 14, and 15. A line perpendicular to
the side with length 14 divides the interior of the triangle into two regions of equal area. Find the length of
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the segment of the perpendicular that lies within the triangle.

Problem 5.4 (Cutting a triangle part 2). An isosceles triangle has a base of length 4, and sides of length 3.
A line drawn through the base and one side (but not through any vertex) divides both the perimeter and the
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area in half. Find the length of the segments of the base defined by this line.

6 Proof based problems

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Problem 6.1 (Apollonius Median Theorem). Let 4ABC have median AM with M on BC . Prove that
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2(AM 2 + BM 2 ) = AB 2 + AC 2 .

Problem 6.2. Using the theorem above, can you show that in a triangle, a2 + b2 + c2 = m2a + m2b + m2c where
a, b, c are the three sides and ma , mb , mc are the three medians.

Problem 6.3 (Application of Ceva). Let AM , BE , and CF be concurrent cevians of a triangle ABC . Show
that EF k BC if and only if BM = M C .
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Problem 6.4. Let AD, BE, CF be concurrent cevians of a triangle ABC , meeting at P . Prove that
PD PE PF
+ + =1
AD BE CF
Problem 6.5 (Monge's Theorem(Optional)). Consider disjoint circles ω1 , ω2 , ω3 in the plane, no two congruent.
For each pair of circles, we construct the intersection of their common external tangents. Prove that these
three intersections are collinear.