Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National olympiad Prove it Ukraine

Let HH be a point which altitudes of the acute-angled triangle ABCABC intersect at. Points A1,B1,C1A_1, B_1, C_1 are midpoints of the sides BC,CA,and ABBC, CA, \text{and } AB respectively. Let A2A_2

and C2C_2 be such points for which A2AACA_2A \perp AC and A2C1ABA_2C_1 \perp AB, C2CACC_2C \perp AC and C2A1BCC_2A_1 \perp BC. Prove the following:

a) midpoint of the sector BH is on line A2C2A_2C_2;

b) let line BB1BB_1 intersect a circle circumscribed about triangle A1B1C1A_1B_1C_1 at points B1B_1 and B3B_3, point B3B_3 is then on line A2C2A_2C_2.

Solution

Let H2H_2 be a midpoint of the segment BHBH. Let wAw_A, wCw_C be circles of radius A2AA_2A and C2CC_2C with centers at points A2A_2, C2C_2 respectively. Then they are tangent to line ACAC at endpoints of the segment ACAC and pass through point BB, since points A2A_2, C2C_2 are on the respective perpendicular bisectors. Furthermore, power of point B1B_1 about these circles is equal and therefore the radical axis of the circles is the line BB1BB_1. Let the second point which the circles intersect at be B4B_4. Then according to the theorem about the tangent and chord we find B4AC=B4BA\angle B_4AC = \angle B_4BA, B4CA=B4BCCB4A=πB4BAB4BC=πABC=AHC\angle B_4CA = \angle B_4BC \Rightarrow \angle CB_4A = \pi - \angle B_4BA - \angle B_4BC = \pi - \angle ABC = \angle AHC. Then points AA, B4B_4, CC, HH are on one circle. Dilation with center BB and ratio 12\frac{1}{2} (fig.4) converts the circle circumscribed about AHC\triangle AHC into a circle circumscribed about A1B2C1\triangle A_1B_2C_1 and respectively segment B4HB_4H into segment B3B2B_3B_2. In this case B1B2B_1B_2 is a diameter of the last circle which implies B3B2BB1B_3B_2 \perp BB_1. Therefore, B2B_2 is on the perpendicular bisector to BB4BB_4 which has points A2A_2, C2C_2 on it as they are centers of the circles passing through BB, B4B_4.

Figure 1
Fig.4

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