Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

Let ABCABC be an acute triangle with circumcenter OO and incenter II. Points E,ME, M lie on ACAC and F,NF, N on ABAB so that BEACBE \perp AC, CFABCF \perp AB, ABM=CBM\angle ABM = \angle CBM and ACN=BCN\angle ACN = \angle BCN. Prove that II lies on EFEF if and only if OO lies on MNMN.

Solution

Solution:

Let a=BCa = BC, b=CAb = CA, c=ABc = AB. It is well-known (and follows from, say, Stewart's Theorem) that AM=bca+cAM = \frac{bc}{a + c} and AN=bca+bAN = \frac{bc}{a + b}.

Now, the distances from OO to BCBC, ACAC, ABAB are RcosαR \cos \alpha, RcosβR \cos \beta, RcosγR \cos \gamma, respectively, where α,β,γ\alpha, \beta, \gamma are the angles of ABC\triangle ABC, and RR is the circumradius of ABCABC.

So, OO is on line MNMN if and only if
[ANM]=[ANO]+[AOM][ABC]ANABAMAC=[ANO]+[AOM](12aRcosα+12bRcosβ+12cRcosγ)ba+bca+c \begin{aligned} {[ANM]} & = [ANO] + [AOM] \\ \Longleftrightarrow [ABC] \cdot \frac{AN}{AB} \cdot \frac{AM}{AC} & = [ANO] + [AOM] \\ \Longleftrightarrow \left(\frac{1}{2} a R \cos \alpha + \frac{1}{2} b R \cos \beta + \frac{1}{2} c R \cos \gamma\right) \cdot \frac{b}{a + b} \cdot \frac{c}{a + c} \end{aligned}
(Here we use [P][\mathcal{P}] for the area of polygon P\mathcal{P}.) Next, recall that AE=ccosαAE = c \cos \alpha, AF=bcosαAF = b \cos \alpha. Thus II is on EFEF if and only if
[AFE]=[AFI]+[AIE][ABC]AFABAEAC=12rccosα+12rbcosα12r(a+b+c)cos2α=12r(b+c)cosα(a+b+c)cosα=b+c. \begin{aligned} {[AFE]} & = [AFI] + [AIE] \\ \Longleftrightarrow [ABC] \cdot \frac{AF}{AB} \cdot \frac{AE}{AC} & = \frac{1}{2} r \cdot c \cos \alpha + \frac{1}{2} r \cdot b \cos \alpha \\ \Longleftrightarrow \frac{1}{2} r(a + b + c) \cos^2 \alpha & = \frac{1}{2} r(b + c) \cos \alpha \\ \Longleftrightarrow (a + b + c) \cos \alpha & = b + c. \end{aligned}
Because AC=AE+ECAC = AE + EC, we know b=ccosα+acosγb = c \cos \alpha + a \cos \gamma. Similarly, c=bcosα+acosβc = b \cos \alpha + a \cos \beta. Thus II is on EFEF if and only if
(a+b+c)cosα=(ccosα+acosγ)+b(cosα+acosβ)cosα=cosβ+cosγ. \begin{aligned} (a + b + c) \cos \alpha & = (c \cos \alpha + a \cos \gamma) + b(\cos \alpha + a \cos \beta) \\ \Longleftrightarrow \cos \alpha & = \cos \beta + \cos \gamma. \end{aligned}
This implies the result.

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