Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Let ABC\triangle ABC be inscribed in a circle kk, and let MM be an arbitrary point on kk different from AA, BB, CC. Prove that the feet of the three perpendiculars from MM to the sides of ABC\triangle ABC are collinear. (Note: You may have to extend some sides to find these feet: see Figure.)

Solution

Solution:

It will suffice to show that AQR=CQP\angle AQR = \angle CQP (compare with Problem 3.) Note that both quadrilaterals MQARMQAR and MQPCMQPC are cyclic: MRA=90=MQA\angle MRA = 90^{\circ} = \angle MQA, and MQC=90=MPC\angle MQC = 90^{\circ} = \angle MPC. Using inscribed angles in these quadrilaterals, we obtain that the two angles in question equal correspondingly to:
AQR=AMR,CQP=CMR. \angle AQR = \angle AMR, \quad \angle CQP = \angle CMR.
Look carefully at MAR\triangle MAR and MCP\triangle MCP: both have one right angle, and we hope to show that two more angles are the same. Equivalently, we want to show that these two triangles are similar. Can we do that? Yes. Their third angles are the same: MCP=MAR\angle MCP = \angle MAR because MAR=180MAB=MCB\angle MAR = 180^{\circ} - \angle MAB = \angle MCB from the inscribed quadrilateral MCBAMCBA.

Thus, we conclude that MARMCP\triangle MAR \sim \triangle MCP (two same angles), so their third angles are also the same: CMP=RMA\angle CMP = \angle RMA. Combining this with (1), we finally obtain AQR=CQP\angle AQR = \angle CQP, and therefore P,Q,RP, Q, R are collinear.

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