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Czech and Slovak Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 6.3 National Olympiad Prove it Czech Republic

Let ABCABC be a triangle with the shortest side BCBC. Let XX, YY, KK, LL be points on sides ABAB, ACAC and on rays opposite to rays BCBC, CBCB respectively such that BX=BK=BC=CY=CLBX = BK = BC = CY = CL. Line KXKX intersects line LYLY in a point MM. Prove that centroid of triangle KLMKLM coincides with incentre of triangle ABCABC.

(Tomáš Jurík)

Solution

Since ABCABC is an external angle of the isosceles triangle XKBXKB with the apex BB (see the picture), a line KXKX is parallel to a bisectrix of the angle ABCABC.

Figure 1

Fig. 4

The ratio LB:LK=2:3LB : LK = 2 : 3 yields, that the bisectrix of ABCABC meets the centroid of the triangle KLMKLM. If we denote LL1LL_1 its median and L2L_2 its intersection with the bisectrix of ABCABC then we obtain
LL2LL1=LBLK=23. \frac{LL_2}{LL_1} = \frac{LB}{LK} = \frac{2}{3}.
from similarity of the triangles △LBL2∼△LKL1\triangle LBL_2 \sim \triangle LKL_1 (by A-A). So the point L2L_2 divides the median LL1LL_1 in the same ratio as the centroid and therefore it is the centroid of the triangle KLMKLM.

It follows from the symmetry of the problem, that bisectrix of the angle BCABCA meets the centroid of the triangle KLMKLM. And the fact, that intersection of the bisectrices is the incentre, proves the claim of the problem.

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