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Bulgarian Mathematical Competitions

Geometry Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Bulgaria

Problem:
A circle kk through the vertices AA and BB of an acute △ABC\triangle ABC meets the sides ACAC and BCBC at inner points MM and NN, respectively. The tangent lines to kk at the points MM and NN meet at point OO. Prove that OO is the circumcenter of △CMN\triangle CMN if and only if ABAB is a diameter of kk.

Solution

Solution:
If ABAB is a diameter of kk, then ANAN and BMBM are altitudes of △ABC\triangle ABC. Let HH be the orthocenter of △ABC\triangle ABC and let the tangent line to kk at MM meet the altitude CHCH at O1O_1. Then CMO 1 = ABM = AM 2\text{CMO 1 = ABM = AM 2} and ∠ABM=∠ACH\angle ABM = \angle ACH. Thus ∠CMO1=∠MCO1\angle CMO_1 = \angle MCO_1, i.e. CO1=MO1CO_1 = MO_1. On the other hand ∠O1HM=90∘−∠O1CM=90∘−∠CMO1=∠O1MH\angle O_1HM = 90^\circ - \angle O_1CM = 90^\circ - \angle CMO_1 = \angle O_1MH, i.e. O1M=O1HO_1M = O_1H. Therefore O1O_1 is the midpoint of CHCH. It can be seen analogously that the tangent line to kk at NN passes through O1O_1, i.e. O≡O1O \equiv O_1 and OM=ON=OC=CH/2OM = ON = OC = CH/2.

Figure 1

Let OO be the circumcenter of △CMN\triangle CMN. Then ∠CMO=∠MCO=∠ABM\angle CMO = \angle MCO = \angle ABM and ∠CNO=∠NCO=∠BAN\angle CNO = \angle NCO = \angle BAN. Hence
∠ACB=∠MCO+∠NCO=∠ABM+∠BAN. \angle ACB = \angle MCO + \angle NCO = \angle ABM + \angle BAN.
Therefore
2∠ANB=∠ANB+∠AMB=180∘−∠ABC−∠BAN+180∘−∠BAC−∠ABM=360∘−(∠ABC+∠ACB+∠BAC)=180∘. \begin{aligned} 2\angle ANB &= \angle ANB + \angle AMB \\ &= 180^\circ - \angle ABC - \angle BAN + 180^\circ - \angle BAC - \angle ABM \\ &= 360^\circ - (\angle ABC + \angle ACB + \angle BAC) = 180^\circ. \end{aligned}
Hence ∠ANB=90∘\angle ANB = 90^\circ and ABAB is a diameter of kk.

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