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Geometry Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Czech Republic

Given an acute-angled triangle ABCABC. The points BB' and CC' lie on the rays opposite to CACA and BABA, respectively, such that BC=AB|B'C| = |AB| and CB=AC|C'B| = |AC|. Prove that the circumcenter of ABCAB'C' lies on the circumcircle of ABCABC. (Patrik Bak)

Solutions — 3

Solution 1

Since the line segments ABAB', ACAC' have the same length AB+AC|AB'| + |AC'|, ABCAB'C' is an isosceles triangle with base BCB'C'. It means that the perpendicular bisector of BCB'C' coincides with the bisector of the angle BACBAC. Let SAS \neq A be the intersection of this bisector with the circumcircle of ABCABC. If we prove that SS is a circumcenter of ABCAB'C' we will be finished. Since SS lies on the perpendicular bisector of BCB'C', we have SB=SC|SB'| = |SC'|. So, it remains to prove that SA=SC|SA| = |SC'|.

From congruence of inscribed angles SABSAB and SACSAC it follows that SS is the midpoint of the arc BCBC, and therefore BS=CS|BS| = |CS|. From the cyclic quadrilateral ABSCABSC we have ACS=180SBA=CBS|\angle ACS| = 180^\circ - |\angle SBA| = |\angle C'BS|. Together with equality CA=BC|CA| = |BC'| we get that triangles SACSAC and SCBSC'B are congruent by condition SASSAS and therefore SA=SC|SA| = |SC'|.

Figure 1
Figure 1

Solution 2

Let us define the point SS as in the first solution. This time we verify the desired equality SA=SC|SA| = |SC'| by showing that SS lies on the perpendicular bisector of ACAC'.

In the special case where AB=AC|AB| = |AC| holds, the midpoint of ACAC' is BB (according to the construction of CC'); therefore it suffices to verify that the angle ABSABS is right. However, this follows from the fact that the cyclic quadrilateral ABSCABSC is then composed of two identical triangles ABSABS and ACSACS, so the angles at their opposite vertices BB and CC are identical and therefore right.

When ABAC|AB| \neq |AC|, we can without loss of generality assume that AB>AC|AB| > |AC| as in figure 2. Here PP and QQ denote the perpendicular projections of SS onto lines ABAB and ACAC, respectively. Thanks to our assumption AB>AC|AB| > |AC| the point PP lies inside the segment ABAB, while the point QQ lies on the opposite ray to the ray CACA. We prove that PP is the midpoint of ACAC'.

BPS and CQS, also the angles PSB and QSC have the same size. In addition, we have PS=QS|PS| = |QS|, since SS lies on the angle bisector of CABC'AB'. We thus obtain that triangles PBSPBS and QCSQCS are congruent according to condition ASA. Hence, equality BP=CQ|BP| = |CQ| follows. Moreover, from the identical rectangular triangles ASPASP and ASQASQ we also have AP=AQ|AP| = |AQ|, so together it yields
AP=AQ=AC+CQ=CB+BP=CP. |AP| = |AQ| = |AC| + |CQ| = |C'B| + |BP| = |C'P|.
Thus, PP is indeed the midpoint of ACAC', and the proof is complete.

Figure 2
Figure 2

Solution 3

This time we denote by SS the circumcenter of ABCAB'C' and we prove that points AA, BB, SS, and CC lie on one circle. According to the introduction of the first solution, we know that ABCAB'C' is an isosceles triangle with base BCB'C', hence its circumcenter SS lies on the angle bisector of CABC'AB', that is BACBAC. The points BB and CC therefore lie in the opposite half-planes with the boundary line ASAS, therefore it is sufficient to verify ABS=180ACS|\angle ABS| = 180^\circ - |\angle ACS|.

By equalities AC=AB|AC'| = |AB'| and AS=CS=BS|AS| = |C'S| = |B'S|, the triangles CASC'AS and ABSAB'S are isosceles and congruent. Thus, if we rotate triangle CASC'AS around SS about the oriented angle CSAC'SA we obtain triangle ABSAB'S. Since BB lies on CAC'A, CC lies on ABAB' and at the same time CB=AC|C'B| = |AC|, this rotation maps BB onto CC and thus the angle CBSC'BS to the angle ACSACS. Therefore, CBS=ACS|\angle C'BS| = |\angle ACS|, which already follows ABS=180CBS=180ACS|\angle ABS| = 180^\circ - |\angle C'BS| = 180^\circ - |\angle ACS| as we promised to show.

Figure 3
Figure 3

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