Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2023

Geometry Difficulty 8.2 Shortlist Prove it Saudi Arabia

Given an acute triangle ABCABC with its altitudes ADAD, BEBE, CFCF concurrent at HH. The point KK changes on the segment AHAH. Let MM, NN be the projection of HH on the lines KEKE, KFKF. Prove that the line joining the circumcenter of triangles HENHEN and HFMHFM always passes through a fixed point.

Solution

Let SS, TT be the intersection of the lines KFKF, KEKE with CACA, ABAB and PP, QQ the midpoint of HTHT, HSHS. Since HFT=HMT=90\angle HFT = \angle HMT = 90^\circ so HTHT is the diameter of (HMF)(HMF) and PP is the center of (HMF)(HMF). Similarly, QQ is the center of (HNE)(HNE).

Let RR be the intersection of STST, EFEF. Based on the basic properties of harmonic points, we have
A(HR,EF)=1. A(HR, EF) = -1.
On the other hand, if EFEF, BCBC intersect at RR', then A(DR,EF)=1A(DR', EF) = -1, from which it follows that RRR \equiv R' and resulting in RR being the fixed point. Since HH is fixed, the midpoint LL of HRHR is also a fixed point. On the other hand, PLPL, QLQL are the medians of triangles HTRHTR, HSRHSR such that RR, SS, TT are collinear, so LL belongs to PQPQ. So PQPQ passes through the fixed LL. \square

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