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Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Czech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match

We are given an acute triangle ABCABC. Point DD lies in the halfplane ABAB containing CC and satisfies DBABDB \perp AB and ADB=45+12ACB\angle ADB = 45^\circ + \frac{1}{2}\angle ACB. Similarly, EE lies in the halfplane ACAC containing BB and satisfies ACECAC \perp EC and AEC=45+12ABC\angle AEC = 45^\circ + \frac{1}{2}\angle ABC. Let FF be the reflection of AA in the midpoint of arc BACBAC (containing point Aˉ\bar{A}). Prove that points A,D,E,FA, D, E, F are concyclic. (Patrik Bak, Slovakia)

Solutions — 3

Solution 1

Denote ABC=β\angle ABC = \beta and ACB=γ\angle ACB = \gamma. The conditions translate as BAD=45γ\angle BAD = 45^\circ - \gamma and EAC=45β\angle EAC = 45^\circ - \beta. Denote by GG the intersection point of BDBD and CECE. Clearly BAG=90γ=2BAD\angle BAG = 90^\circ - \gamma = 2\angle BAD, and so ADAD is the angle bisector of BAGBAG. Similarly, AEAE is the angle bisector of GACGAC.
Let D,ED', E' be the midpoints of AD,AEAD, AE, respectively. It is enough to show that the circle through A,D,EA, D', E' also passes through the midpoint of arc BACBAC. Consider the circumcircle of ADEAD'E' and denote its second intersection points with AB,AG,ACAB, AG, AC by P,Q,RP, Q, R, respectively.

Figure 1

First, we will show that BP=CRBP = CR. Notice that due ABD\angle ABD being right, we have that DD' is the circumcenter of ABDABD, and so DB=DAD'B = D'A. Then we get DBA=PAD=DAQ\angle D'BA = \angle PAD' = \angle D'AQ, and also AQD=BPD\angle AQD' = \angle BPD'. Together with DB=DAD'B = D'A, we have that triangles DAQD'AQ and DBPD'BP are congruent, and so BP=AQBP = AQ. Similarly, we can show CR=AQCR = AQ, and so BP=CRBP = CR as we wanted.

We will now show that the circle through A,P,RA, P, R passes through the midpoint of arc BACBAC. Denote by MM the second intersection of this circle with the circle ABCABC.

Clearly MBP=MCR\angle MBP = \angle MCR and MPA=MRA\angle MPA = \angle MRA, and also BP=RCBP = RC, so triangle MBPMBP and MCRMCR are congruent, giving MB=MDMB = MD, which is enough.

Solution 2

Similarly to the previous solution, we consider homothety with center AA and coefficient 1/21/2 to obtain points D,E,MD', E', M and prove that ADB,AEC,BMCAD'B, AE'C, BMC are isosceles triangles. Moreover, by angle chasing we can get BMC=α,ADB=90+γ\angle BMC = \alpha, \angle AD'B = 90^\circ + \gamma and AEC=90+β\angle AE'C = 90^\circ + \beta. Let us notice that the sum of these angles BMC+ADB+AEC=360\angle BMC + \angle AD'B + \angle AE'C = 360^\circ. We may view these three isosceles triangles as three rotations (for example, triangle ADBAD'B corresponds to the rotation around DD' by angle ADBAD'B and sends point BB to point AA). We will call them green, blue, and red.
Because the sum of the three angles is 360360^\circ, the composition of these three rotations is a translation. Moreover, if we follow the image of CC we notice that green rotation maps it to BB, then blue maps it to AA, and finally red maps it back to CC. Hence, the translation is actually an identity. Let MM' be the image of MM under the blue rotation. Then MDMMD'M' is similar to ADBAD'B. And because MM is the center of the green rotation, the composition of blue and red rotations has to map MM back to MM. Hence, MEMM'E'M has to be similar to AECAE'C. And so DME=BAD+CAE=α/2=DAE\angle D'ME' = \angle BAD' + \angle CAE' = \alpha/2 = \angle D'AE'. Thus, AMEDAME'D' is cyclic and we are done.

Solution 3

[sketch] Let G,D,EG, D', E' be as in the original solution. Denote MM the midpoint of arc BACBAC. Moreover, let the line AMAM meet the lines BDBD and ECEC at XX and YY, respectively. Since AMAM is the external angle bisector, we get XAB=CAY=90α/2\angle XAB = \angle CAY = 90^\circ - \alpha/2. Therefore, GXY=GYX=α/2\angle GXY = \angle GYX = \alpha/2, so the triangle GXYGXY is isosceles. Since AGAG is a diameter of the circumcircle of ABCABC, GMXYGM \perp XY, thus MM is the midpoint XYXY.
We can calculate XAD=180α/2(45+γ/2)=45+β/2\angle XAD = 180^\circ - \alpha/2 - (45^\circ + \gamma/2) = 45^\circ + \beta/2. Similarly CAY=45+β/2\angle CAY = 45^\circ + \beta/2. This gives us that the triangles DAXDAX and ACYACY are spirally similar. From this spiral similarity we get that also DEMD'E'M is similar to them. So, DME=α/2\angle D'ME' = \alpha/2.
We can calculate DAE=180(45+β/2)(45+γ/2)=α/2\angle D'AE' = 180^\circ - (45^\circ + \beta/2) - (45^\circ + \gamma/2) = \alpha/2, hence A,D,E,MA, D', E', M are concyclic. Homothety with center AA and coefficient 2 maps this circle to the desired circle.

Figure 2

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