Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.5 AIME Prove it Slovenia

Let DD be a point on the side ABAB of an acute triangle ABCABC such that the triangle BCDBCD is also acute. Denote the orthocentre of the triangle BCDBCD by HH. Prove: if points AA, DD, HH and CC are concyclic, then the triangle ABCABC is isosceles.

Solution

Let BAC=α\angle BAC = \alpha. Since AA, DD, HH and CC are concyclic, we have DHC=πBAC=πα\angle DHC = \pi - \angle BAC = \pi - \alpha.

Let EE be the foot of the altitude from CC to the side BDBD. Since DHE=πDHC=α\angle DHE = \pi - \angle DHC = \alpha, we have HDB=π2α\angle HDB = \frac{\pi}{2} - \alpha.

Since the line DHDH is perpendicular to the side BCBC, we have CBA=π2BDH=α\angle CBA = \frac{\pi}{2} - \angle BDH = \alpha, so the triangle ABCABC is isosceles.

Figure 1

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