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Geometry Difficulty 8.0 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Estonia

Let ABCABC be an isosceles triangle with apex AA and altitude ADAD. On ABAB, choose a point FF distinct from BB such that CFCF is tangent to the incircle of ABDABD. Suppose that BCF\triangle BCF is isosceles. Show that those conditions uniquely determine:

a) which vertex of BCFBCF is its apex;

b) the size of BAC\angle BAC.

Solution

a) Consider cases of the location of the vertex angle of the triangle BCFBCF (Fig. 27).
If FF were the apex, then FF would lie on the perpendicular bisector of the side BCBC, i.e., on the line ADAD, whence F=AF = A. Therefore ACAC would be a tangent of the incircle of the triangle ABDABD. But the lines ABAB and ADAD are tangents of the same circle. There can be at most two tangents drawn from one point to one circle. Hence this case is impossible.
Let BB be the apex. As CBFCBF is a base angle of the isosceles triangle ABCABC, we have CBF<90\angle CBF < 90^\circ. Hence BCF>45\angle BCF > 45^\circ. Let KK be the tangent point of the line CFCF and the incircle of the triangle ABDABD and let LL be the projection of the point KK onto the line BCBC. By construction, KL<2rKL < 2r, where rr is the radius of the incircle

Figure 1
Fig. 27

of the triangle ABDABD. On the other hand, LCK=BCF>45\angle LCK = \angle BCF > 45^\circ implies KL>CL>CD=BD>2rKL > CL > CD = BD > 2r. Hence this case is impossible, too.
This shows that the apex of triangle BCFBCF can only be CC.

b) Let the apex be CC. Fix a point DD, mutually perpendicular lines l1l_1 and l2l_2 both passing through CC, and circle cc that is tangent to both lines; let the radius of the circle be rr. Choose point AA on l1l_1 in such a way that DA>2rDA > 2r and the tangent point of line l1l_1 and circle cc lies on the line segment DADA. Point BB is determined by the location of AA as the point of intersection of line l2l_2 and the second tangent line of circle cc passing through AA, point CC is symmetric to BB w.r.t. DADA and FF is defined as in the problem. When point AA moves away from DD, points BB and CC get closer to DD, whence BAC\angle BAC decreases and BCF\angle BCF increases. Thus these angles can equal only in one case.

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