Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / 6-th Czech-Slovak Match /6 of 6

6-th Czech-Slovak Match

Geometry Difficulty 6.6 National Olympiad Prove it Czech Republic

Let ABCABC be a triangle, kk its incircle and ka,kb,kck_a, k_b, k_c three circles orthogonal to kk passing through BB and CC, AA and CC, and AA and BB respectively. The circles ka,kbk_a, k_b meet again in C′C'; in the same way we obtain the points B′B' and A′A'. Prove that the radius of the circumcircle of A′B′C′A'B'C' is half the radius of kk.

Solution

Figure 1
Let II and rr denote the center and the radius of circle kk. Let D,ED, E, and FF denote the points where kk touches BC,ACBC, AC, and ABAB, respectively. Let P,QP, Q, and RR denote the midpoints of EF,DFEF, DF, and DEDE respectively. We will use the well known lemma:
LEMMA. The circles to k1(S1,r1)k_1(S_1, r_1) and to k2(S2,r2)k_2(S_2, r_2) are orthogonal if and only if
r12+r22=∣S1S2∣2 r_1^2 + r_2^2 = |S_1S_2|^2
First of all we prove that point QQ and RR lie on circle kak_a. Obviously BDIFBDIF is a deltoid, so QQ is the foot of a perpendicular from point DD to BIBI. Thus, applying the first Euclidean's theorem to triangle △IBD\triangle IBD, we have ∣IQ∣⋅∣IB∣=∣ID∣2=r2|IQ| \cdot |IB| = |ID|^2 = r^2. Similarly ∣IR∣⋅∣IC∣=r2|IR| \cdot |IC| = r^2. Thus ∣IQ∣⋅∣IB∣=∣IR∣⋅∣IC∣|IQ| \cdot |IB| = |IR| \cdot |IC|, so the points B,C,R,QB, C, R, Q lie on a circle which we denote γa\gamma_a.
The points Q∈IBQ \in IB and R∈ICR \in IC, so that point II lies outside the circle γa\gamma_a. By the above relations, we obtain that the power of the point II to the circle γa\gamma_a is r2r^2, which means that the circles kk and γa\gamma_a are orthogonal. From the uniqueness of kak_a it follows that ka=γak_a = \gamma_a. Thus kak_a contains QQ and RR. Similarly kbk_b contains PP and RR and kck_c contains PP and QQ. Hence, A′=PA' = P, B′=QB' = Q and C′=RC' = R. Therefore the radius of the circumcircle of △A′B′C′\triangle A'B'C' is half the radius of kk. ☐

Figure 2
Let k(I,r)k(I, r) be the incircle of △ABC\triangle ABC. Let D,ED, E, and FF denote the points where kk touches BC,ACBC, AC, and ABAB, respectively. Let P,QP, Q, and RR denote the midpoints of EF,DFEF, DF, and DEDE respectively. We prove that kak_a passes through QQ and RR.
Since △IQD∼△IDB\triangle IQD \sim \triangle IDB and △IRD∼△IDC\triangle IRD \sim \triangle IDC, we obtain IQ⋅IB=IR⋅IC=r2IQ \cdot IB = IR \cdot IC = r^2. We conclude that B,C,QB, C, Q, and RR lie on a single circle γa\gamma_a. Moreover, since the power of II with respect to γa\gamma_a is r2r^2, it follows for a tangent IXIX from II to γa\gamma_a that XX lies on kk and hence kk is perpendicular to γa\gamma_a. From the uniqueness of kak_a it follows that ka=γak_a = \gamma_a. Thus kak_a contains QQ and RR. Similarly kbk_b contains PP and RR and kck_c contains PP and QQ. Hence, A′=P,B′=QA' = P, B' = Q and C′=RC' = R. Therefore the radius of the circumcircle of △A′B′C′\triangle A'B'C' is half the radius of kk. □\square

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

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