In this Blog we will talk about a fascinating geometry lemma which can help you to solve some of the hardest and finest geometry problems around the globe, so without any delay let's look up to the lemma.
: In a
, a line from
intersects
at
and a line from
intersects
at
and
be the intersection point of
and
, then
and ![]()
(SEE THE FIGURE FOR REFERENCES)

Let's work through the proof:

construction! , yes , so we construct
. Then we observe
and
.
Then we have
and
.
Then also we have
. So we have
. Also,
.
So simplifying we get
so we get
. Similarly, we can get the other ratio. ![]()
Now Let's Look up to some applications of this Lemma.
If
is the angle bisector of
in
, s.t.
and
is it's Incenter, show that: ![]()
so, we do some mark-ups, denote
,
and
, the angle bisector of
hits ,
at
and similarly the angle bisector of
hits
at ![]()
Now we use the angle bisector theorem to get:
, now from the lotus ratio lemma, we get:![]()
. ![]()
hence our problem is done!
As shown in the figure, triangle is divided into six smaller triangles by lines drawn from the vertices through a common interior point. The areas of four of these triangle are as indicated. Find the area of triangle . (AIME
)
Firstly denote point intersection of line from
and
be
using the lotus ratio lemma we notice:
, from base division theorem ,
and
. So we have
, so again from base division theorem
, so
hence
,
interestingly there was no use of giving area
.(Which actually shows how powerful the lemma is!)
(Menelaus' Theorem)
If line
intersecting
on
, where
is on
is on the extension of
, and
on the intersection of
and
, then
.

Now, you can try to give a rigid proof of this problem using lotus ratio lemma , for further discussions. Join us at SuMON Slow Math Program to know more interesting lemmas and theorems like these while exploring problems from the problem sets, solve more exciting problems like this every fortnight, which require only logical thinking rather than conceptual prerequisites making math fun! These kind of problems are not available in wide range of math text books. We also provide detailed solution to each problem for every fortnight which will teach you a lot of fun lemma's and ideas in mathematics.
Happy mathematics!