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China Hong Kong Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 4.5 AIME Prove it Hong Kong

Let II and OO be the incentre and circumcentre of △ABC\triangle ABC, respectively. Assume △ABC\triangle ABC is not equilateral (so I≠OI \neq O). Prove that ∠AIO≤90∘\angle AIO \leq 90^\circ if and only if 2BC≤AB+CA2BC \leq AB + CA.

Solution

Let AIAI meet (ABC)(ABC) again at DD. Recall that DB=DI=DCDB = DI = DC. Applying Ptolemy's theorem to ABCDABCD, we obtain
AD×BC=AB×CD+AC×BD=DI(AB+AC). AD \times BC = AB \times CD + AC \times BD = DI(AB + AC).
Note that ∠AIO≤90∘\angle AIO \le 90^\circ if and only if AI≥IDAI \ge ID. This is equivalent to
2≤ADDI=AB+ACBC. 2 \le \frac{AD}{DI} = \frac{AB + AC}{BC}.
This holds if and only if 2BC≤AB+AC2BC \le AB + AC as desired.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.