Forum Geometricorum
Volume 5 (2005) 191–195. b b
b
b
FORUM GEOM
ISSN 1534-1178
A Gergonne Analogue of the Steiner - Lehmus Theorem
K. R. S. Sastry
Abstract. In this paper we prove an analogue of the famous Steiner - Lehmus
theorem from the Gergonne cevian perspective.
1. Introduction
Can a theorem be both famous and infamous simultaneously? Certainly there is
one such in Euclidean Geometry if the former is an indicator of a record number
of correct proofs and the latter an indicator of a record number of incorrect ones.
Most school students must have found it easy to prove the following: The angle
bisectors of equal angles of a triangle are equal. However, not many can prove its
converse theorem correctly:
Theorem 1 (Steiner-Lehmus). If two internal angle bisectors of a triangle are
equal, then the triangle is isosceles.
According to available history, in 1840 a Berlin professor named C. L. Lehmus
(1780-1863) asked his contemporary Swiss geometer Jacob Steiner for a proof
of Theorem 1. Steiner himself found a proof but published it in 1844. Lehmus
proved it independently in 1850. The year 1842 found the first proof in print
by a French mathematician [3]. Since then mathematicians and amateurs alike
have been proving and re-proving the theorem. More than 80 correct proofs of the
Steiner - Lehmus theorem are known. Even larger number of incorrect proofs have
been offered. References [4, 5] provide extensive bibliographies on the Steiner -
Lehmus theorem.
For completeness, we include a proof by M. Descube in 1880 below, recorded
in [1, p.235]. The aim of this paper is to prove an analogous theorem in which
we consider the equality of two Gergonne cevians. We offer two proofs of it and
then consider an extension. Recall that a Gergonne cevian of a triangle is the line
segment connecting a vertex to the point of contact of the opposite side with the
incircle.
2. Proof of the Steiner - Lehmus theorem
Figure 1 shows the bisectors BE and CF of ∠ABC and ∠ACB. We assume
BE = CF. If AB = AC, let AB < AC, i.e., ∠ACB < ∠ABC or C
2 < B
2 . A
Publication Date: December 20, 2005. Communicating Editor: Paul Yiu.