Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.4 National olympiad Prove it Russia

Let Ω\Omega be the circumcircle of a scalene triangle ABCABC with ACB=60\angle ACB = 60^\circ. The points AA' and BB' are chosen on the internal angle bisectors of the angles BACBAC and ABCABC, respectively, so that ABBCAB' \parallel BC and BAACBA' \parallel AC. The line ABA'B' meets ω\omega at points DD and EE. Prove that the triangle CDECDE is isosceles.

Solution

Let NN be the midpoint of the arc ABCABC, and TT be the midpoint of the lesser arc NCNC. Prove that NN and TT lie on ABA'B'. For this purpose, notice that AN=BN=AB=AB=BAAN = BN = AB = A'B = B'A.

From the parallelism of the lines ABAB' and BCBC, we get that ABB=CBB=ABB\angle AB'B = \angle CBB' = \angle ABB'. Therefore, AB=ABAB' = AB. Similarly, AB=ABAB = A'B. Denote BAC=2α\angle BAC = 2\alpha, ABC=2β\angle ABC = 2\beta. Let, without loss of generality, α>β\alpha > \beta.

Let NN be the midpoint of the arc ACBACB of the circle Ω\Omega (see Fig. 12). Then AN=BNAN = BN and ANB=ACB=60\angle ANB = \angle ACB = 60^\circ; therefore, =BA= B'A. Therefore, point AA is the center of the circle described around AB=60β-\angle AB' = 60^\circ - \beta, whence NAB=2NBB=1202β\angle NAB' = 2\angle NBB' = 120^\circ - 2\beta and

=AN=BN= AN = BN and ANB=ACB=60\angle ANB = \angle ACB = 60^\circ; therefore, =BA= B'A. Therefore, point AA is the center of the circle described around AB=60β-\angle AB' = 60^\circ - \beta, whence NAB=2NBB=1202β\angle NAB' = 2\angle NBB' = 120^\circ - 2\beta and

ANB=90NAB/2=30+β\angle ANB' = 90^\circ - \angle NAB'/2 = 30^\circ + \beta. Similarly, BNA=30+α\angle BNA' = 30^\circ + \alpha, whence BNA+ANB+BNA=(30+β)+60+(30+α)=120+(α+β)=180\angle B'NA + \angle ANB + \angle BNA' = (30^\circ + \beta) + 60^\circ + (30^\circ + \alpha) = 120^\circ + (\alpha + \beta) = 180^\circ. Thus, point NN lies on the line ABA'B'.

Let TT be the midpoint of the lesser arc NCNC of the circle Ω\Omega. Note that ANT=ABT=(ABN+ABC)/2=30+β=ANB\angle ANT = \angle ABT = (\angle ABN + \angle ABC)/2 = 30^\circ + \beta = \angle ANB'. Therefore, point TT also lies on the line ABA'B', and triangle CDECDE coincides with triangle CNTCNT. This triangle is isosceles, since NT=TCNT = TC.

Figure 1

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