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Butterfly Using Menelaus

1) The document proves that through a point P of a line segment AB, whose endpoints A and B lie on intersecting lines l and l', drawing lines PX and PY, and points X, Y, implies that PX = PY. 2) It does this by applying Menelaus' theorem four times to different parts of the diagram formed by lines l, l', and the transversals through points P, X, and Y. 3) Multiplying the four identities obtained from Menelaus' theorem and simplifying gives an expression that implies PX = PY.

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neiljain421
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33 views

Butterfly Using Menelaus

1) The document proves that through a point P of a line segment AB, whose endpoints A and B lie on intersecting lines l and l', drawing lines PX and PY, and points X, Y, implies that PX = PY. 2) It does this by applying Menelaus' theorem four times to different parts of the diagram formed by lines l, l', and the transversals through points P, X, and Y. 3) Multiplying the four identities obtained from Menelaus' theorem and simplifying gives an expression that implies PX = PY.

Uploaded by

neiljain421
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Butterfly with Menelaus

Sidney Kung
September 7, 2012
We give a proof of the following by using Menelaus' theorem:
Through a point of the line segment whose end points and lie
on two intersecting lines and , respectively, draw and
, and . Let ,
Then implies
Proof
For a repeated application of Menelaus' here, we shall proceed by focusing on parts of the
diagram:
1. cut by transversal
.
2. cut by transversal
P AB A B
l l

CD EF
(C, F l E, D ) l

CE AB = X
FD AB = Y. PA = PB PX = PY.
OFE CPD
= 1
OC
CF
FP
PE
ED
DO
OAB CPD
.
3. cut by transversal
.
4. cut by transversal
.
Multiplying the four identities and simplifying gives . Since
, the latter expression further simplifies to . Add now to both sides:
, or implying .
= 1
OD
DB
BP
PA
AC
CO
PBE FYD
= 1
PY
YB
BD
DE
EF
FP
FAP CXE
= 1
PE
EF
FC
CA
AX
XP
= 1
PY
YB
AX
XP
BP
PA
PB = PA =
AX
XP
YB
PY
1
=
AX+XP
XP
PY+YB
PY
= ,
PA
XP
PB
PY
PX = PY

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