Let be a chord of a circle with centre , and a point on the segment . Circles and pass through and are tangent to at and , respectively. Let be the second intersection point of and . Prove that is a right angle.
Solution
Let be the intersection point of the tangents to at and . Because of the right angles at and , the points , , , all lie on the circle with diameter . Because and these lines are tangents to and , respectively, must be on the radical axis of and , i.e. on the line . Hence, is a right angle iff is on the circle with diameter .
To show this, first note that by the Alternate Segment Theorem in circle with centre and that by the Alternate Segment Theorem in circle . Hence, which implies that , , , are concyclic. As is a diameter of this circle and is on , it follows that is a right angle.
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